Well, as you can see by that picture on the right, the long-delayed (OK, only two days past due date, but Katy was early and we expected the same) new addition to the Lander family has arrived. Unfortunately, his arrival did not come as easily as Katy's, but the good news is that things seem OK now.
It was a bit of a rough week. On Sunday night, I was up way too late (as usual) and after finishing up the 2-disc Kitchen Confidential, I came to bed about 3:00 AM. Just about the time Suzanne's water broke and she realized the "gas pains" she'd been having were in fact labor. We grabbed our stuff, called my parents to come to the house and watch Katy and called the midwife.
At about 5:00, we headed to the birthing center. I could tell that Suzanne was in more pain this time, and that continued throughout. She was still remarkably calm, nothing like the screaming pregnant women you see in TV and movies, but I know her well enough to know that it hurt a lot more this time. Aaron hadn't made it easy on us... there was a miscarriage scare, a week of bedrest brought on by fears he was coming too early and then he waited a couple days to come out, and did so more painfully than asked for.
After he was born, at about 9:00 in the morning (8 lbs. 5 ounces), I noticed that there was a lot of blood. The midwives handed my son to me so they could attend to my wife, and I wasn't panicking, hoping that this was, if not normal, not a big deal. That all changed when one of them called an ambulance and I was told that they couldn't get the placenta out. That's when I went into "scared out of my goddamned mind" mode.
I don't think I fell apart, because I knew I couldn't afford to and Suzanne couldn't afford me too, but man was I panicking inside. We got into an ambulance, rode to St. David's, and left Aaron with the midwives to follow us in the car. I didn't get to ride in the back with Suzanne, I rode up front with the ambulance driver, worrying the whole time that it was taking us too long. Forget about all the movies you see where ambulances are careening down the road at breakneck speeds... when you're in the cab, and you think your wife might be bleeding out in the back, driving into oncoming traffic doesn't seem fast enough. It really did seem like we were doing like 30 mph, even though I know based on how fast we got to the hospital that it wasn't the case.
Same with going into the hospital. There were a couple techs, three nurses and one doctor in the room, but it wasn't the crazy fast-cut movement of ER or even Scrubs. Everybody was doing their job methodically, but at that point, I just didn't see the urgency I wanted. I'm sure it was there, but it all moved really slow for me. Fortunately, the doctor, Dr. Fitzwater, got the placenta out and got Suzanne onto some medications for the pain. She was allergic to some of the anti-biotics, which meant she got some Benadryl to control the reaction, and combined with a dizziness side effect from the pain medication and general loopiness from the loss of blood, I could tell she was kind of out of it. We all kept talking to her, though, and she stayed awake, and after what seemed like an excruciating amount of time, the doctors got her stabilized.
We were in the hospital for a couple of days, but we got to come home fairly quickly, and Suzanne seems to be feeling well and recovering nicely. She's stuck in bed for at least a few days, but she's able to feed Aaron and get him to sleep, and both her parents and my parents have been in to help with Katy. We've also got a great support system in my friends and in the Austinmamas, who have had an outpouring of offerings of support. Kind of funny, when we got home from the hospital, there was a phone message and an email from members of the listgroup, wondering if everything was OK because they hadn't heard from Suzanne in a couple days. My wife is what you call a frequent poster when she's involved with a list. :)
At any rate, it was a scary, awful day, but the end result is a recovering, soon to be fully healthy mom and a healthy, happy (by newborn standards) baby boy. Anyone who wants to see pictures can look at my flickr set. And right now my email priorities are, in order: Family, Business, Friends & Scheduling Stuff and then everything else. So if I'm less responsive than usual, or if you notice my workload at Comic Pants has grown even smaller, now you know why.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 13, 2007
Wow. Huge week. Which is perfect, since the baby will probably come on Wednesday and I won't be there for it. :)
TOP FIVE:
BPRD Garden Of Souls #4 (Easily one of my top five favorite series running)
DMZ #20 (Ditto, especially on this latest arc, which is the best the series has been so far)
Fables Vol 9 Sons Of Empire TP (Some great stuff in this one, including how the Empire would invade Earth)
Nova #3 (I'm really digging this book, although I'm anxious for it to get back to space... but they handle the Civil War/Initiative tie-in very well)
Re-Gifters (First Minx book was a solid favorite, I look forward to reading this one)
THE REST:
Avengers Classic #1 (Art Adams covers, original Dwayne McDuffie story, I'll check it out, even though I have the Avengers CD-ROM and Essential Avengers for the main story)
Aviary (New one-shot from Adhouse, sure to be beautifully designed and interesting)
Black Diamond #1 (Car chase madness from AIT/Planet Lar... their first color ongoing series... those who miss Drive should check this out)
Death Jr Vol 2 TP (More fun adventures with art by Ted Naifeh)
Elephantmen Pilot (I've already got this, I think, but it's really terrific stuff)
Fables #62 (The Flycatcher arc has re-invigorated my interest in the series, and I don't know where it's going, which is nice)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 3 Scary Summer Sc (Terrific art line-up on this one... weird that volume two never came out)
Hack Slash Series #2 (First issue was pretty impressive, with a great new artist)
Hellboy Animated Vol 2 Judgement Bell TP (First volume of this was surprisingly excellent as well)
Hulk Planet Hulk HC (Now that it's all together, I might give it another shot, especially if World War Hulk is enjoyable and doesn't piss me off)
Jack Kirbys Fourth World Omnibus Vol 1 HC (Very tempted by this, but I need to see production values first)
Mystic Arcana Magik (Hoping for good, as I have a fondness for Magik, but I haven't got any sense of Marvel's magic event yet)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 8 (Terrific suspense manga, as always)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game HC (Beautiful art by D'Israeli, interesting post-War of the Worlds sci-fi by Ian Edginton)
Star Wars Legacy #13 (Still only mildly enjoying this, but it's solid and has great art)
Star Wars Rebellion #7 (The delays lost a lot of my interest in this one, but I've liked what I've read)
Stormwatch PHD #8 (Finally caught up on this book... it's OK, not great, but I'll keep reading)
Sub-Mariner #1 (Reviewing this for Comic Pants, so I'll read it, but with low expectations as I'm not a fan of the characters and don't really know the creators)
World War Hulk #1 (Expecting it to piss me off at some point, but right now I'm onboard. Hulk Smash!)
TOP FIVE:
BPRD Garden Of Souls #4 (Easily one of my top five favorite series running)
DMZ #20 (Ditto, especially on this latest arc, which is the best the series has been so far)
Fables Vol 9 Sons Of Empire TP (Some great stuff in this one, including how the Empire would invade Earth)
Nova #3 (I'm really digging this book, although I'm anxious for it to get back to space... but they handle the Civil War/Initiative tie-in very well)
Re-Gifters (First Minx book was a solid favorite, I look forward to reading this one)
THE REST:
Avengers Classic #1 (Art Adams covers, original Dwayne McDuffie story, I'll check it out, even though I have the Avengers CD-ROM and Essential Avengers for the main story)
Aviary (New one-shot from Adhouse, sure to be beautifully designed and interesting)
Black Diamond #1 (Car chase madness from AIT/Planet Lar... their first color ongoing series... those who miss Drive should check this out)
Death Jr Vol 2 TP (More fun adventures with art by Ted Naifeh)
Elephantmen Pilot (I've already got this, I think, but it's really terrific stuff)
Fables #62 (The Flycatcher arc has re-invigorated my interest in the series, and I don't know where it's going, which is nice)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 3 Scary Summer Sc (Terrific art line-up on this one... weird that volume two never came out)
Hack Slash Series #2 (First issue was pretty impressive, with a great new artist)
Hellboy Animated Vol 2 Judgement Bell TP (First volume of this was surprisingly excellent as well)
Hulk Planet Hulk HC (Now that it's all together, I might give it another shot, especially if World War Hulk is enjoyable and doesn't piss me off)
Jack Kirbys Fourth World Omnibus Vol 1 HC (Very tempted by this, but I need to see production values first)
Mystic Arcana Magik (Hoping for good, as I have a fondness for Magik, but I haven't got any sense of Marvel's magic event yet)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 8 (Terrific suspense manga, as always)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game HC (Beautiful art by D'Israeli, interesting post-War of the Worlds sci-fi by Ian Edginton)
Star Wars Legacy #13 (Still only mildly enjoying this, but it's solid and has great art)
Star Wars Rebellion #7 (The delays lost a lot of my interest in this one, but I've liked what I've read)
Stormwatch PHD #8 (Finally caught up on this book... it's OK, not great, but I'll keep reading)
Sub-Mariner #1 (Reviewing this for Comic Pants, so I'll read it, but with low expectations as I'm not a fan of the characters and don't really know the creators)
World War Hulk #1 (Expecting it to piss me off at some point, but right now I'm onboard. Hulk Smash!)
Pandora Internet Radio
My buddy Dave showed me this new site, which is just too cool for words. Basically, it's Internet radio, but you program it by putting in songs and/or artists you like and it plays songs from them as well as songs similar to those, and you can thumbs up/thumbs down to help it narrow things down.
Very, very cool and totally addictive. My station is HERE, although it's very much a work in progress.
Very, very cool and totally addictive. My station is HERE, although it's very much a work in progress.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Blog Template Update for May
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
Given how much I hate much of Marvel's best sellers, I'm continuously shocked by how much of them I read. Six books this month (counting Criminal, which is just barely Marvel), and three of them are even in post-Initiative continuity. DC doesn't fare so well, post-52... none of their books even made it close, and the one book I am reading, The Spirit, isn't in continuity. Of course, there were four Vertigo books in there, just as many as I have Dark Horse and one less than I have of Image. Two indys, one from Archaia and one from Oni.
Graphic novels I read this month but didn't hit my Top 10 include a slew of discounted Marvel hardcovers (Westerns, Horror, Supreme Power 1-2, Best of Wolverine), Transformers: Infiltration and Transformers: Escalation, the latest Walking Dead HC, the Oni story of the first monkey in space, First in Space and Plain Janes, the launch of DC's Minx line. Those last two would easily have made a top 10 in a weaker month, but there were just so many good trades released in May. And that's not even counting the good ones that I haven't read yet, like Mouse Guard or Fell. Single issues that almost made the list included Hack Slash Series #1, GI Joe Storm Shadow #1, Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1, World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker, Marvel Zombies Dead Days, the third issues of Buffy, Star Wars Dark Times and Marvel Zombies Army of Darkness and Captain America #26. So it was a pretty good month for comic books. There wasn't a lot new, but what was new was pretty good, an X-Men First Class Special with great artwork and the hilariously sick and wrong Goon: Satan's Sodomy Baby.
May was a really good month for TV. Sopranos and Veronica Mars both drew to a close, the latter in a decent manner after a disappointing season and a disappointing near-pickup, the former in fine style, although as I write this there's still one more episode to go. A lot of TV ended in May, which means my June line-up is probably going to look pretty different. Most of what was great (The Office, 30 Rock, The Shield) stayed great, and Lost took a huge upturn and ended on a great episode, while Heroes ended a great set of episodes with a really disappointing finale. The upfronts for next season look pretty fucking abysmal in terms of new shows, so this might have been the best season of TV for a while.
Tons of new feeds this month. I added Tom Brevoort's Marvel Blog: Blah Blah Blah to follow the entertaining Editorial Simulation, finally added The Savage Critics to my feed, found Melanie McFarland, Seattle's TV Gal off a link from Alan Sepinwall and added Rolling Stone's Photo, DVD, Music and Movie feeds. I also added a couple new writer feeds from Andy Diggle and Heroes producer Greg Beeman, found artist blogs for several favorites like Frazer Irving, Kyle Baker and Sean Phillips and added three new webcomics: Alien Loves Predator, Smuggling Spirits and Wondermark. Then there were two new local feeds for Austinite Rob Osborne and the Alamo Drafthouse.
Given how much I hate much of Marvel's best sellers, I'm continuously shocked by how much of them I read. Six books this month (counting Criminal, which is just barely Marvel), and three of them are even in post-Initiative continuity. DC doesn't fare so well, post-52... none of their books even made it close, and the one book I am reading, The Spirit, isn't in continuity. Of course, there were four Vertigo books in there, just as many as I have Dark Horse and one less than I have of Image. Two indys, one from Archaia and one from Oni.
Graphic novels I read this month but didn't hit my Top 10 include a slew of discounted Marvel hardcovers (Westerns, Horror, Supreme Power 1-2, Best of Wolverine), Transformers: Infiltration and Transformers: Escalation, the latest Walking Dead HC, the Oni story of the first monkey in space, First in Space and Plain Janes, the launch of DC's Minx line. Those last two would easily have made a top 10 in a weaker month, but there were just so many good trades released in May. And that's not even counting the good ones that I haven't read yet, like Mouse Guard or Fell. Single issues that almost made the list included Hack Slash Series #1, GI Joe Storm Shadow #1, Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1, World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker, Marvel Zombies Dead Days, the third issues of Buffy, Star Wars Dark Times and Marvel Zombies Army of Darkness and Captain America #26. So it was a pretty good month for comic books. There wasn't a lot new, but what was new was pretty good, an X-Men First Class Special with great artwork and the hilariously sick and wrong Goon: Satan's Sodomy Baby.
May was a really good month for TV. Sopranos and Veronica Mars both drew to a close, the latter in a decent manner after a disappointing season and a disappointing near-pickup, the former in fine style, although as I write this there's still one more episode to go. A lot of TV ended in May, which means my June line-up is probably going to look pretty different. Most of what was great (The Office, 30 Rock, The Shield) stayed great, and Lost took a huge upturn and ended on a great episode, while Heroes ended a great set of episodes with a really disappointing finale. The upfronts for next season look pretty fucking abysmal in terms of new shows, so this might have been the best season of TV for a while.
Tons of new feeds this month. I added Tom Brevoort's Marvel Blog: Blah Blah Blah to follow the entertaining Editorial Simulation, finally added The Savage Critics to my feed, found Melanie McFarland, Seattle's TV Gal off a link from Alan Sepinwall and added Rolling Stone's Photo, DVD, Music and Movie feeds. I also added a couple new writer feeds from Andy Diggle and Heroes producer Greg Beeman, found artist blogs for several favorites like Frazer Irving, Kyle Baker and Sean Phillips and added three new webcomics: Alien Loves Predator, Smuggling Spirits and Wondermark. Then there were two new local feeds for Austinite Rob Osborne and the Alamo Drafthouse.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 6, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #4 (The conclusion of Whedon's first arc)
Dynamo 5 #4 (One of my favorite new series on a biweekly release schedule... doesn't get much better than that)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #1 (The origins of Heath Huston, Texan alien exterminator, picks up at Dark Horse)
Jack Of Fables #11 (At last, the conclusion of the "Jack Frost" story)
Superior Showcase #2 (Indy style superheroes! The first issue was great)
THE REST:
Avengers Initiative #3 (Weaker with every issue. Some good moments, but I can't believe this is the same writer who kicked ass on early days of She-Hulk and on The Thing)
Fantastic Four Inhumans TP (Beautiful Ladronn art on part of this, beautiful Pacheco art on the rest... stories so-so on both)
Invincible #42 (Jumping-on priced at $1.99, and I've been enjoying this book a lot lately)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #4 (In a way, more fun than the original Marvel Zombies, since it includes so many C-listers)
New Warriors #1 (Solid first issue with beautiful art by Paco Medina)
Spider-Man Family #3 (Includes stories by Paul Tobin and Fred Van Lente)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #19 (One more issue of McKeever to go)
Strange Embrace #1 (Loved this in black and white GN form, looking forward to seeing the new color version too)
Uncanny X-Men #487 (Interesting opening to the new arc, but I miss Billy Tan's art and I'm still pissed about Corsair... and Banshee, for that matter)
Ward O/t State #2 (Good first issue, weird but engrossing concept)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #4 (The conclusion of Whedon's first arc)
Dynamo 5 #4 (One of my favorite new series on a biweekly release schedule... doesn't get much better than that)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #1 (The origins of Heath Huston, Texan alien exterminator, picks up at Dark Horse)
Jack Of Fables #11 (At last, the conclusion of the "Jack Frost" story)
Superior Showcase #2 (Indy style superheroes! The first issue was great)
THE REST:
Avengers Initiative #3 (Weaker with every issue. Some good moments, but I can't believe this is the same writer who kicked ass on early days of She-Hulk and on The Thing)
Fantastic Four Inhumans TP (Beautiful Ladronn art on part of this, beautiful Pacheco art on the rest... stories so-so on both)
Invincible #42 (Jumping-on priced at $1.99, and I've been enjoying this book a lot lately)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #4 (In a way, more fun than the original Marvel Zombies, since it includes so many C-listers)
New Warriors #1 (Solid first issue with beautiful art by Paco Medina)
Spider-Man Family #3 (Includes stories by Paul Tobin and Fred Van Lente)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #19 (One more issue of McKeever to go)
Strange Embrace #1 (Loved this in black and white GN form, looking forward to seeing the new color version too)
Uncanny X-Men #487 (Interesting opening to the new arc, but I miss Billy Tan's art and I'm still pissed about Corsair... and Banshee, for that matter)
Ward O/t State #2 (Good first issue, weird but engrossing concept)
Monday, May 28, 2007
Threadless Summer Sale!
Threadless, the place where I buy almost all my T-Shirts (excepting stuff I buy at Comic-con and small press shows), is having one of their regular $10 sales. Most of their shirts (which are voted on by the membership and designed by people all over the country) are really cool, and I already have at least a half-dozen. After this sale, I'll have about ten more.
You can check them out HERE.
You can check them out HERE.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 31, 2007
TOP FIVE
Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1 (First series didn't end great, but was otherwise very enjoyable... looking forward to picking up the cliffhanger)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #2 (First issue was solid, with beautiful art... but I think I'd like Hellboy to go back to the BPRD now)
Punisher Max Vol 3 HC (Waiting for hardcovers pays off, as I've got some new Punisher stories to read in the format I prefer)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #17 (I've been digging this adventurous, light-hearted take on early Star Wars, and have gone from reading trades to reading issues)
Usagi Yojimbo #103 (Continues to be a great read every time)
THE REST
Daredevil #97 (I like this book, but I do think Brubaker's noir sensibilities are a little off-kilter with the take on the superhero genre I prefer)
Drawing From Life #1 (Jim Valentino returns to auto-bio)
Fallen Angel #16 (Love Kristian's guest art, but I don't even know where the story is at this point)
Fear Agent Vol 2 My War TP (Good solid action-heavy sci-fi with great art)
Previews Vol XVII #6 (Down the Line already in the works)
Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1 (Could be kind of fun, almost certainly will have nice art)
White Picket Fences #1 ('50s period piece with weird science/alien elements, sounds like fun)
Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1 (First series didn't end great, but was otherwise very enjoyable... looking forward to picking up the cliffhanger)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #2 (First issue was solid, with beautiful art... but I think I'd like Hellboy to go back to the BPRD now)
Punisher Max Vol 3 HC (Waiting for hardcovers pays off, as I've got some new Punisher stories to read in the format I prefer)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #17 (I've been digging this adventurous, light-hearted take on early Star Wars, and have gone from reading trades to reading issues)
Usagi Yojimbo #103 (Continues to be a great read every time)
THE REST
Daredevil #97 (I like this book, but I do think Brubaker's noir sensibilities are a little off-kilter with the take on the superhero genre I prefer)
Drawing From Life #1 (Jim Valentino returns to auto-bio)
Fallen Angel #16 (Love Kristian's guest art, but I don't even know where the story is at this point)
Fear Agent Vol 2 My War TP (Good solid action-heavy sci-fi with great art)
Previews Vol XVII #6 (Down the Line already in the works)
Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1 (Could be kind of fun, almost certainly will have nice art)
White Picket Fences #1 ('50s period piece with weird science/alien elements, sounds like fun)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
TV Thoughts - Summer Finales & Fall Preview
I watch a fair amount of TV, it's probably my favorite medium aside from comics. And though there's a lot of it that's trash (say 99.99% of reality television, for example, if the 0.01% is Celebrity Poker Showdown and Dinner for Five), there's also a lot of good stuff. I always enjoy the Network upfronts at the beginning of summer, because there's always so much promise in what's going to come next. I know in my heart that, as per usual, most of the shows I like will struggle for an audience and die, leaving me frustrated with their sudden departures, but there's usually a flood of promising new series. Last season was especially promising. This season? Not so much.
But before I talk about what's coming up, a few words on what's going on. As I write this, I'm just about to sit down and watch the Lost season finale on Tivo. With the exception of the Hurley-VW bus episode, I've been really crazy about this season of Lost. I know many folks felt it jumped the Ezra James Sharkington this season, but I couldn't disagree more. Especially in the last half-dozen episodes or so, the show has started giving fascinating answers, raising even more fascinating tension and presenting the same elevated level of writing and acting that you just plain can't on a genre show, most of the time.
I hope it's good, because so far, my season enders have been downers. I was hugely disappointed in the lackluster Heroes finale, which spent a lot of time on weepy build-up that duplicated all the effort made in the previous excellent four or five episodes, and left too little time for a lackluster and illogical final fight with Sylar. Lots of build-up, disappointing payoff, and too many questions stopped me from enjoying it. Like why does D.L. go from mortally wounded to okay enough to lay around for a few hours before surviving, with no apparent medical attention? Why didn't Sylar use some abilities besides telekinesis when battling the assembled heroes? Why didn't Peter pull out some impressive abilities in that fight? Why couldn't Peter fly on his own, and if it's because he only uses one power at once, why was that never, ever mentioned, not even once, during the show? Kind of a crucial thing to leave out, if your big season finale cliffhanger is going to rely on it. I didn't hate the finale... it was solid enough that I still plan to pick up the DVDs. But after the notable jump in quality the show took in the last half of the season, it was disappointing to see it plummet down to the "merely OK" quality level that it begun the season at.
Veronica Mars? I'm disappointed that it's gone, but also disappointed by the ending. They were good shows, but the last episode seemed like the kind of thing that could have been an entire season arc, or at least one of their mini-arcs, and the payoffs would have been great with that much more build-up. I'm glad that Logan and Veronica didn't wind up together (I hated that relationship as a long-term thing, and much as I found Piz boring, I preferred him to gripy, bitter Logan. Nobody ever really seemed to match wits properly with Veronica in terms of her boyfriends, which is a shame) and the downer ending, while sad, did fit the general vibe of the show. It was also great to see Mac and Wallace return from invisibility to regain the roles they should have had for the last season and a half of the show. Season three was pretty weak, and I doubt very much I'll be picking up the DVDs. Again, not an awful finale, but a disappointing one.
All the sitcoms ended well, though. 30 Rock was brilliant and funny, The Office funny and kind of sweet with its turns in the Pam-Jim relationship, My Name is Earl kind of surprising in a "huh, where do they go from here?" way and How I Met Your Mother a cute, relatively fresh take on "the big wedding" episode that also features some notable turns in the Robin-Ted relationship and, as always, show-stopping moments from Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. OK, now that I think about it, not all of the sitcoms ended well. Seeing the J.D.-Eliot story rear its ugly head again in Scrubs put me on the edge of "What the hell are you doing?" rage. We've been there before, gotten all the mileage there is out of it, I'd rather see J.D. and Eliot in the just-friends relationship, the way they work best. Scrubs was a weaker season, and I'm torn... on one hand, I'm glad they get another season to try and do the final season right, on the other I'm wondering if it's going to get weaker still and go out on a weaker note.
Midseason and summer looks pretty great to me as well. Sopranos is doing that slow-burn thing really well, Entourage is fun again (although it still hasn't hit the addictive level for me it did during season two) and The Shield is amazing. The most consistently excellent show on television. And the teaser for Glenn Close's new show, a lawyer show that seems to be much more a gritty crime drama than another Shark or Law & Order, looks very promising. Midseason also brings the return of several shows that I like but don't love, like The 4400, Rescue Me and Big Love. Combine with several new shows launching from HBO (none of which look great, but I can never judge HBO on their teasers, which are inevitably weaker than their shows) and this looks like a good summer for TV.
Good thing, because the Fall season looks like it's gonna suuuuuuuck. I mean, there are returning favorites, like Lost, Heroes, the NBC Thursday comedy block (it's Must-See again) and How I Met Your Mother, but the crop of new shows is disappointing. And the shows I really liked this season, like Smith and Kidnapped, got killed early and thus, no season two. Even flawed shows that could have gotten better, like Studio 60, are gone, gone, gone. So it was up to the networks to come up with some fresh new shows to catch my eye again. And they failed miserably. Here's what I'm looking at for next season:
MONDAY
8:00 p.m. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Now that I've discovered this show, I can't get enough of it. It's not Arrested Development or even 30 Rock or The Office, but it's a good, solid, occasionally off-beat comedy with a great cast.
9:00 p.m. K-Ville (FOX) - This is a cop drama (strike one), but it's set in post-Katrina New Orleans (I have a fondness for the city going back to before Katrina, so I like the setting) and stars Anthony Anderson (who rocked the house in The Shield). Too bad it's opposite Heroes, meaning that I won't be watching it. In fact, given that this is the only series FOX has that holds any interest for me, it looks like I'm down from one or two FOX shows to none. Come January, they're promising a revitalized 24 (they've won me back once, with season four and five, but I'm not sure I'm up for another go-round after the crap they served up this season... if the show isn't centered on CTU and Los Angeles, I might be interested... if it is, I'm gone) and, more importantly, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There's plenty of life in the Terminator franchise, and this could be really good. Of course, it's Fox and it's sci-fi, so it's probably doomed anyway.
9:00 p.m.: Heroes (NBC) - The finale may have been a bit of a letdown, but the teaser for season two was fun. Looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
10:00 p.m.: Journeyman (NBC) - A drama starring Kevin McKidd (whoever the hell that is) as a man who travels back in time to help people in trouble. The vibe I'm getting, for whatever reason, is that this is gonna be lame. I may or may not watch, depending on the advance word.
TUESDAY
9:00 p.m.: Chuck (NBC) - The teaser for this one on the NBC website is kind of funny, with just a touch of Judd Apatow flavor (even though he has nothing to do with it, the show is in fact by The O.C.'s creator). It's a spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi as a regular guy who stumbles upon a second career as a government agent. Has potential, and Adam Baldwin as a supporting player, which is a plus.
9:00 p.m.: Reaper (CW) - And over on The CW, at the same time, is a show with a similar premise, except that the everyman stumbles onto a second career as a bounty hunter for the Devil, because his parents sold his soul when he was born. Neat enough premise, but it conflict with Chuck, which I'm more interested in, and which has the additional benefit of not being on the network that cancelled Veronica Mars.
10:00 Cane (CBS) - An ensemble business about a Florida rum family, with a good cast. Again, though, I just don't care much about the premise. If it's more crime drama than family drama, I might be onboard. But I doubt it.
Meanwhile, ABC offers up a show about the Geico cavemen. Somebody in programming must have lost a bet.
WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m.: Pushing Daisies (ABC) - Another weird premise, this one about a guy whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then he can't touch them ever again without undoing the gift. Too bad one of the first people he brings back is his girlfriend. Weird, intriguing premise, pushed over the top because the guy behind it is Bryan Fuller, of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.
9:00 p.m.: Bionic Woman (NBC) - I don't particularly care about a remake of the 1970s TV series, except that the teaser from NBC looks solid enough, and more importantly, one of the guys behind it is David Eick, who helped make another revamp of another '70s TV sci-fi series (Galactica) I didn't care about into one of my favorite shows. Not particularly looking forward to it or anything, but I'll give it a couple episodes to hook me.
10:00 p.m.: Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) - Got a mild interest in this one because of the cast, but I generally don't have much interest in the "rich people are such bastards" genre. If it's more Arrested Development than Dallas, that'll be one thing, but I don't think that's the vibe I'm getting.
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m.: My Name Is Earl (NBC)
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock (NBC)
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office (NBC)
9:30-10 p.m.: Scrubs (NBC)
10 p.m.: Big Shots (ABC) - I like this cast, which features Christopher Titus, Michael Vartan, Josh Malina, but it's another "how rich and powerful people live" show and quite frankly, I don't much care.
FRIDAY
9:00 Moonlight (CBS) - A vampire P.I. - Hmm, where have I seen that before? I have serious doubts that this is going to live up to the moody, noir and yet fun vibe that Angel achieved, and I'm more expecting another half-hearted, quickly cancelled attempt at genre from the networks, who (with rare exceptions) don't seem able to pull them off. Especially bummed because this got picked up instead of the zombie show Babylon Fields... we haven't had a lot of zombie TV, as compared to the numerous vampire shows.
But before I talk about what's coming up, a few words on what's going on. As I write this, I'm just about to sit down and watch the Lost season finale on Tivo. With the exception of the Hurley-VW bus episode, I've been really crazy about this season of Lost. I know many folks felt it jumped the Ezra James Sharkington this season, but I couldn't disagree more. Especially in the last half-dozen episodes or so, the show has started giving fascinating answers, raising even more fascinating tension and presenting the same elevated level of writing and acting that you just plain can't on a genre show, most of the time.
I hope it's good, because so far, my season enders have been downers. I was hugely disappointed in the lackluster Heroes finale, which spent a lot of time on weepy build-up that duplicated all the effort made in the previous excellent four or five episodes, and left too little time for a lackluster and illogical final fight with Sylar. Lots of build-up, disappointing payoff, and too many questions stopped me from enjoying it. Like why does D.L. go from mortally wounded to okay enough to lay around for a few hours before surviving, with no apparent medical attention? Why didn't Sylar use some abilities besides telekinesis when battling the assembled heroes? Why didn't Peter pull out some impressive abilities in that fight? Why couldn't Peter fly on his own, and if it's because he only uses one power at once, why was that never, ever mentioned, not even once, during the show? Kind of a crucial thing to leave out, if your big season finale cliffhanger is going to rely on it. I didn't hate the finale... it was solid enough that I still plan to pick up the DVDs. But after the notable jump in quality the show took in the last half of the season, it was disappointing to see it plummet down to the "merely OK" quality level that it begun the season at.
Veronica Mars? I'm disappointed that it's gone, but also disappointed by the ending. They were good shows, but the last episode seemed like the kind of thing that could have been an entire season arc, or at least one of their mini-arcs, and the payoffs would have been great with that much more build-up. I'm glad that Logan and Veronica didn't wind up together (I hated that relationship as a long-term thing, and much as I found Piz boring, I preferred him to gripy, bitter Logan. Nobody ever really seemed to match wits properly with Veronica in terms of her boyfriends, which is a shame) and the downer ending, while sad, did fit the general vibe of the show. It was also great to see Mac and Wallace return from invisibility to regain the roles they should have had for the last season and a half of the show. Season three was pretty weak, and I doubt very much I'll be picking up the DVDs. Again, not an awful finale, but a disappointing one.
All the sitcoms ended well, though. 30 Rock was brilliant and funny, The Office funny and kind of sweet with its turns in the Pam-Jim relationship, My Name is Earl kind of surprising in a "huh, where do they go from here?" way and How I Met Your Mother a cute, relatively fresh take on "the big wedding" episode that also features some notable turns in the Robin-Ted relationship and, as always, show-stopping moments from Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. OK, now that I think about it, not all of the sitcoms ended well. Seeing the J.D.-Eliot story rear its ugly head again in Scrubs put me on the edge of "What the hell are you doing?" rage. We've been there before, gotten all the mileage there is out of it, I'd rather see J.D. and Eliot in the just-friends relationship, the way they work best. Scrubs was a weaker season, and I'm torn... on one hand, I'm glad they get another season to try and do the final season right, on the other I'm wondering if it's going to get weaker still and go out on a weaker note.
Midseason and summer looks pretty great to me as well. Sopranos is doing that slow-burn thing really well, Entourage is fun again (although it still hasn't hit the addictive level for me it did during season two) and The Shield is amazing. The most consistently excellent show on television. And the teaser for Glenn Close's new show, a lawyer show that seems to be much more a gritty crime drama than another Shark or Law & Order, looks very promising. Midseason also brings the return of several shows that I like but don't love, like The 4400, Rescue Me and Big Love. Combine with several new shows launching from HBO (none of which look great, but I can never judge HBO on their teasers, which are inevitably weaker than their shows) and this looks like a good summer for TV.
Good thing, because the Fall season looks like it's gonna suuuuuuuck. I mean, there are returning favorites, like Lost, Heroes, the NBC Thursday comedy block (it's Must-See again) and How I Met Your Mother, but the crop of new shows is disappointing. And the shows I really liked this season, like Smith and Kidnapped, got killed early and thus, no season two. Even flawed shows that could have gotten better, like Studio 60, are gone, gone, gone. So it was up to the networks to come up with some fresh new shows to catch my eye again. And they failed miserably. Here's what I'm looking at for next season:
MONDAY
8:00 p.m. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Now that I've discovered this show, I can't get enough of it. It's not Arrested Development or even 30 Rock or The Office, but it's a good, solid, occasionally off-beat comedy with a great cast.
9:00 p.m. K-Ville (FOX) - This is a cop drama (strike one), but it's set in post-Katrina New Orleans (I have a fondness for the city going back to before Katrina, so I like the setting) and stars Anthony Anderson (who rocked the house in The Shield). Too bad it's opposite Heroes, meaning that I won't be watching it. In fact, given that this is the only series FOX has that holds any interest for me, it looks like I'm down from one or two FOX shows to none. Come January, they're promising a revitalized 24 (they've won me back once, with season four and five, but I'm not sure I'm up for another go-round after the crap they served up this season... if the show isn't centered on CTU and Los Angeles, I might be interested... if it is, I'm gone) and, more importantly, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There's plenty of life in the Terminator franchise, and this could be really good. Of course, it's Fox and it's sci-fi, so it's probably doomed anyway.
9:00 p.m.: Heroes (NBC) - The finale may have been a bit of a letdown, but the teaser for season two was fun. Looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
10:00 p.m.: Journeyman (NBC) - A drama starring Kevin McKidd (whoever the hell that is) as a man who travels back in time to help people in trouble. The vibe I'm getting, for whatever reason, is that this is gonna be lame. I may or may not watch, depending on the advance word.
TUESDAY
9:00 p.m.: Chuck (NBC) - The teaser for this one on the NBC website is kind of funny, with just a touch of Judd Apatow flavor (even though he has nothing to do with it, the show is in fact by The O.C.'s creator). It's a spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi as a regular guy who stumbles upon a second career as a government agent. Has potential, and Adam Baldwin as a supporting player, which is a plus.
9:00 p.m.: Reaper (CW) - And over on The CW, at the same time, is a show with a similar premise, except that the everyman stumbles onto a second career as a bounty hunter for the Devil, because his parents sold his soul when he was born. Neat enough premise, but it conflict with Chuck, which I'm more interested in, and which has the additional benefit of not being on the network that cancelled Veronica Mars.
10:00 Cane (CBS) - An ensemble business about a Florida rum family, with a good cast. Again, though, I just don't care much about the premise. If it's more crime drama than family drama, I might be onboard. But I doubt it.
Meanwhile, ABC offers up a show about the Geico cavemen. Somebody in programming must have lost a bet.
WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m.: Pushing Daisies (ABC) - Another weird premise, this one about a guy whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then he can't touch them ever again without undoing the gift. Too bad one of the first people he brings back is his girlfriend. Weird, intriguing premise, pushed over the top because the guy behind it is Bryan Fuller, of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.
9:00 p.m.: Bionic Woman (NBC) - I don't particularly care about a remake of the 1970s TV series, except that the teaser from NBC looks solid enough, and more importantly, one of the guys behind it is David Eick, who helped make another revamp of another '70s TV sci-fi series (Galactica) I didn't care about into one of my favorite shows. Not particularly looking forward to it or anything, but I'll give it a couple episodes to hook me.
10:00 p.m.: Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) - Got a mild interest in this one because of the cast, but I generally don't have much interest in the "rich people are such bastards" genre. If it's more Arrested Development than Dallas, that'll be one thing, but I don't think that's the vibe I'm getting.
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m.: My Name Is Earl (NBC)
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock (NBC)
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office (NBC)
9:30-10 p.m.: Scrubs (NBC)
10 p.m.: Big Shots (ABC) - I like this cast, which features Christopher Titus, Michael Vartan, Josh Malina, but it's another "how rich and powerful people live" show and quite frankly, I don't much care.
FRIDAY
9:00 Moonlight (CBS) - A vampire P.I. - Hmm, where have I seen that before? I have serious doubts that this is going to live up to the moody, noir and yet fun vibe that Angel achieved, and I'm more expecting another half-hearted, quickly cancelled attempt at genre from the networks, who (with rare exceptions) don't seem able to pull them off. Especially bummed because this got picked up instead of the zombie show Babylon Fields... we haven't had a lot of zombie TV, as compared to the numerous vampire shows.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 23, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Criminal #6 (The new story arc begins!)
Dynamo 5 #3 (Really digging this new superhero team book by Jay Faerber and Mahmud Asrar... Invincible fans especially should give this a look)
Fantastic Four #546 (Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier are kicking much ass on this book)
Spirit #6 (Darwyn Cooke is a genius, and his take on The Spirit is genius as well)
Fell Vol 1 Feral City TP (Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith doing weird police procedural... fun stuff)
THE REST:
Captain America #26 (Not quite sure I'm up for a couple years of a Captain America book without Captain America, but it's solidly written and drawn)
Gutsville #1 (Bizarre concept, nice art by Frazer Irving, I'm looking forward to this)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 (I think I missed last issue... I'll see when I try and read this one, I guess)
Left On Mission #2 ('70s style spy novel in comic book form)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 7 TP (Yay, more Grimjack reprints!)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1 (All-ages Iron Man who isn't a government stooge/total dick)
Psycomm Vol 2 (Tony Salvaggio's futuristic media criticism/psychic warfare book gets a second volume)
Star Wars Legacy #12 (Started reading this again after picking up the trade... too many factions, but solid writing and gorgeous art)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 3 My Secret Life Digest (More Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane always welcome as well)
Transformers Escalation TP (Movie trailer and interested friends have me in Transformers mode, time to give this a read)
Criminal #6 (The new story arc begins!)
Dynamo 5 #3 (Really digging this new superhero team book by Jay Faerber and Mahmud Asrar... Invincible fans especially should give this a look)
Fantastic Four #546 (Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier are kicking much ass on this book)
Spirit #6 (Darwyn Cooke is a genius, and his take on The Spirit is genius as well)
Fell Vol 1 Feral City TP (Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith doing weird police procedural... fun stuff)
THE REST:
Captain America #26 (Not quite sure I'm up for a couple years of a Captain America book without Captain America, but it's solidly written and drawn)
Gutsville #1 (Bizarre concept, nice art by Frazer Irving, I'm looking forward to this)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 (I think I missed last issue... I'll see when I try and read this one, I guess)
Left On Mission #2 ('70s style spy novel in comic book form)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 7 TP (Yay, more Grimjack reprints!)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1 (All-ages Iron Man who isn't a government stooge/total dick)
Psycomm Vol 2 (Tony Salvaggio's futuristic media criticism/psychic warfare book gets a second volume)
Star Wars Legacy #12 (Started reading this again after picking up the trade... too many factions, but solid writing and gorgeous art)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 3 My Secret Life Digest (More Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane always welcome as well)
Transformers Escalation TP (Movie trailer and interested friends have me in Transformers mode, time to give this a read)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 16, 2007
TOP FIVE
BPRD Garden Of Souls #3 (Every issue of this series is gold)
Left on Mission #1 (Very good new spy series from Boom!)
Local #9 (A new issue of Local is always welcome)
Mouse Guard Vol 1 Fall 1152 HC (Looking forward to seeing this great series in a beautiful hardcover)
Plain Janes (The launch of DC's Minx line, art by Jim Rugg of Street Angel)
THE REST
Adventures In Oz HC (I bought the trade, but the hardcover is sooo cool... very tempting)
Death Jr. II #3 (Late enough that I've forgotten what's going on, but the good news is it means the trade is imminent)
Ex Machina #28 (Been really digging this one lately)
Fables #61 (The second part of the Frog Prince story, which has rekindled my interest in the book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #1 (Larry Hama does ninja shit... OK, I'll check that out)
The Goon: Satans ##### Baby (Offensively funny, or just offensive? Or just funny? Worth looking to find out)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #13 (Jeff Parker rocks, and I love that someone is writing the Avengers I want to read)
Runaways Vol 3 HC (The Vaughan/Alphona Runaways is all collected in hardcover. Nice.)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Vol 2 TP (First volume was great, action-packed Star Wars stuff)
Uncanny X-Men #486 (The finale of the Brubaker/Tan space X-Men saga)
Wasteland #9 (Hyped for this book again after reading the trade and re-connecting with the story and characters)
X-Men First Class Special (Decided to wait on the trade to read the series, but I'll definitely check out this special in the meantime)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #3 (Every issue of this series is gold)
Left on Mission #1 (Very good new spy series from Boom!)
Local #9 (A new issue of Local is always welcome)
Mouse Guard Vol 1 Fall 1152 HC (Looking forward to seeing this great series in a beautiful hardcover)
Plain Janes (The launch of DC's Minx line, art by Jim Rugg of Street Angel)
THE REST
Adventures In Oz HC (I bought the trade, but the hardcover is sooo cool... very tempting)
Death Jr. II #3 (Late enough that I've forgotten what's going on, but the good news is it means the trade is imminent)
Ex Machina #28 (Been really digging this one lately)
Fables #61 (The second part of the Frog Prince story, which has rekindled my interest in the book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #1 (Larry Hama does ninja shit... OK, I'll check that out)
The Goon: Satans ##### Baby (Offensively funny, or just offensive? Or just funny? Worth looking to find out)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #13 (Jeff Parker rocks, and I love that someone is writing the Avengers I want to read)
Runaways Vol 3 HC (The Vaughan/Alphona Runaways is all collected in hardcover. Nice.)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Vol 2 TP (First volume was great, action-packed Star Wars stuff)
Uncanny X-Men #486 (The finale of the Brubaker/Tan space X-Men saga)
Wasteland #9 (Hyped for this book again after reading the trade and re-connecting with the story and characters)
X-Men First Class Special (Decided to wait on the trade to read the series, but I'll definitely check out this special in the meantime)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Con Planning
So I'm definitely going to San Diego this year. Flight booked, hotel room arranged, registration in. Done.
But after looking at the guest list and seeing some of what's going to be offered there (like Vasilis Lolos' new mini-comic), I'm dying to get to MOCCA at the end of June. Just one small hitch... MOCCA doesn't really have any info on hotels, etc.
So... anybody out there have advice on where to stay in New York that's convenient to MOCCA and relatively cheap? I'm not a newbie to the subway in New York, I rode it for about six months and I actually find it a pretty convenient way to travel, so it doesn't have to be too close... just close enough so that I won't be on the subway for an hour each way or something crazy like that.
Shot in the dark, really, and I don't know that anybody reading this blog will be able to give any advice, but I figure it's worth a shot.
But after looking at the guest list and seeing some of what's going to be offered there (like Vasilis Lolos' new mini-comic), I'm dying to get to MOCCA at the end of June. Just one small hitch... MOCCA doesn't really have any info on hotels, etc.
So... anybody out there have advice on where to stay in New York that's convenient to MOCCA and relatively cheap? I'm not a newbie to the subway in New York, I rode it for about six months and I actually find it a pretty convenient way to travel, so it doesn't have to be too close... just close enough so that I won't be on the subway for an hour each way or something crazy like that.
Shot in the dark, really, and I don't know that anybody reading this blog will be able to give any advice, but I figure it's worth a shot.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: Free Comic Book Day 2007
Wow, was that a long (but rewarding) week.
This was my fifth Free Comic Book Day. I've worked every one since the beginning (aside from 2006, when I had a family reunion to attend instead) and they're always a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's even moreso (on both fronts) when you're the store owner.
We had a great Free Comic Book Day. We ordered just enough, for the most part. We even have a few Spider-Man, Bongo and Justice League left over for next year. My fears of running out of the Umbrella Academy sampler or Spider-Man didn't come true. My only regret is that we didn't order more Astounding Wolf-Man, as we ran out of that about mid-day, and I would have liked to have had it into the night. But in general, everybody got the comics they wanted. We started off giving out three to a person, but in the early afternoon moved to five per person, and by the end of the night it was "one of each of what's left" which equated to somewhere between 6-10 per person, depending on how close it was to the end of the night.
From noon until about 3:30, we had comic book creators in the store signing and sketching. Paul Benjamin was clearly in his element, working the crowd, cracking jokes and signing plenty of autographs. We sold quite a few copies of his Pantheon High manga from Tokyopop, and he signed a whole bunch of his copies of Marvel Adventures Two in One Free Comic Book Day offering. Scott Kolins sold several gorgeous prints of pin-ups and covers he had done, as well as doing many a sketch and signing copies of Omega Flight and other works. Billy Tan had two lithographs (one of Hepzibah, one of the X-Men, I bought both for the store) and two sketchbooks (one guys, one girls, I bought both of those as well) and some gorgeous character illustration pieces, and we sold a few of his Uncanny X-Men issues to sign as well. Billy did quite a few sketches as well (including a Corsair for me and a beautiful inked Batman for a customer). Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we were packed to the gills while the creators were there.
Next year, I definitely want to figure out how to get more press coverage. I sent out a press blurb to a ton of folks, including local TV, radio and news and all the comics news sites, and literally nobody picked it up. Many ran press releases for the big Zeus event CAPE (and that's a great event, if I wasn't running my own FCBD I'd be there every year) and a few also ran press for the last-minute mini small press Con being done by Austin Books (again, great store and a good idea for an event.) I was a little frustrated to be ignored when I thought we had a pretty good event put together and I had taken the time to send out press info in advance, but that's the way it goes. Next time, a full fledged press release, even earlier, and more follow-up. Certainly the lack of coverage didn't cost us anything in terms of attendance.
I worked about 14 hours that day, and well over 40 this week getting ready, but it definitely paid off. Tons of kids and adults came in and got free comics. Everybody seemed to have a good time. And I'd do Free Comic Book Day even if it cost us more money, but instead it was our biggest day for the store yet, even counting our five year history. We did about three to four times our usual Saturday business, and even with the expense of free comics, advertising and related costs, it was a very successful day for us.
Already looking forward to next year, and to figuring out what cool event we can run at the store next.
One of my customers, Dave Figueroa, took pictures, so there's a slideshow below.
This was my fifth Free Comic Book Day. I've worked every one since the beginning (aside from 2006, when I had a family reunion to attend instead) and they're always a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's even moreso (on both fronts) when you're the store owner.
We had a great Free Comic Book Day. We ordered just enough, for the most part. We even have a few Spider-Man, Bongo and Justice League left over for next year. My fears of running out of the Umbrella Academy sampler or Spider-Man didn't come true. My only regret is that we didn't order more Astounding Wolf-Man, as we ran out of that about mid-day, and I would have liked to have had it into the night. But in general, everybody got the comics they wanted. We started off giving out three to a person, but in the early afternoon moved to five per person, and by the end of the night it was "one of each of what's left" which equated to somewhere between 6-10 per person, depending on how close it was to the end of the night.
From noon until about 3:30, we had comic book creators in the store signing and sketching. Paul Benjamin was clearly in his element, working the crowd, cracking jokes and signing plenty of autographs. We sold quite a few copies of his Pantheon High manga from Tokyopop, and he signed a whole bunch of his copies of Marvel Adventures Two in One Free Comic Book Day offering. Scott Kolins sold several gorgeous prints of pin-ups and covers he had done, as well as doing many a sketch and signing copies of Omega Flight and other works. Billy Tan had two lithographs (one of Hepzibah, one of the X-Men, I bought both for the store) and two sketchbooks (one guys, one girls, I bought both of those as well) and some gorgeous character illustration pieces, and we sold a few of his Uncanny X-Men issues to sign as well. Billy did quite a few sketches as well (including a Corsair for me and a beautiful inked Batman for a customer). Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we were packed to the gills while the creators were there.
Next year, I definitely want to figure out how to get more press coverage. I sent out a press blurb to a ton of folks, including local TV, radio and news and all the comics news sites, and literally nobody picked it up. Many ran press releases for the big Zeus event CAPE (and that's a great event, if I wasn't running my own FCBD I'd be there every year) and a few also ran press for the last-minute mini small press Con being done by Austin Books (again, great store and a good idea for an event.) I was a little frustrated to be ignored when I thought we had a pretty good event put together and I had taken the time to send out press info in advance, but that's the way it goes. Next time, a full fledged press release, even earlier, and more follow-up. Certainly the lack of coverage didn't cost us anything in terms of attendance.
I worked about 14 hours that day, and well over 40 this week getting ready, but it definitely paid off. Tons of kids and adults came in and got free comics. Everybody seemed to have a good time. And I'd do Free Comic Book Day even if it cost us more money, but instead it was our biggest day for the store yet, even counting our five year history. We did about three to four times our usual Saturday business, and even with the expense of free comics, advertising and related costs, it was a very successful day for us.
Already looking forward to next year, and to figuring out what cool event we can run at the store next.
One of my customers, Dave Figueroa, took pictures, so there's a slideshow below.
Weekly Comics to Come - May 9, 2007
TOP FIVE
Criminal Vol 1 Coward TP (Looking forward to re-reading this all in one sitting, and even more looking forward to the next story arc)
DMZ #19 (Last issue was one of my favorite of the series thus far, previews for this one have looked incredible)
Hack Slash Series #1 (Really good first issue, review up at Comic Pants later this week)
Jack Of Fables #10 (Continues to be fun, and in many ways even better than the series that spawned it)
Killer #4 (More of this beautiful, haunting European series from Archaia)
THE REST
Countdown #51 (OK, I'll at least give the new weekly a shot... like many, though, I have 52 fatigue at this point)
First In Space GN (The story of America's first chimp in space from Oni... I've read it, it's good)
Immortal Iron Fist #5 (Not loving this book, but interested enough to keep reading)
Invincible #41 (Back onboard Invincible again, although the latest issue was a little blood-soaked for my taste)
Marvel Zombies Dead Days (The origin of the Marvel Zombies, by the original creative team)
Noble Causes #29 (I'm behind on Noble Causes, and I need to catch up)
Nova #2 (Very good first issue, looking forward to the second)
Okko Cycle Of Water #3 (Yay, it's Archaia week! Miyazaki-esque adventure book)
Secret History Book Two (Another Archaia book... first issue of this was gorgeous but story didn't quite click, plan on giving it another chance to hook me)
Sollitaria #1 (Intriguing looking new indy book)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #2 (Fun superheroics from Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo)
Star Wars Dark Times #3 (At long last, the third issue of this gorgeously illustrated and well-written Star Wars series comes out)
Thunderbolts #114 (I'm actually really enjoying this cynical anti-hero book)
Two Guns #2 (First issue of this unusual crime thriller was really good... glad to see the second issue arrive in a timely manner, too)
Y The Last Man #56 (Closing in on the end)
Y The Last Man Vol 9 Motherland TP (The penultimate Y The Last Man trade)
Criminal Vol 1 Coward TP (Looking forward to re-reading this all in one sitting, and even more looking forward to the next story arc)
DMZ #19 (Last issue was one of my favorite of the series thus far, previews for this one have looked incredible)
Hack Slash Series #1 (Really good first issue, review up at Comic Pants later this week)
Jack Of Fables #10 (Continues to be fun, and in many ways even better than the series that spawned it)
Killer #4 (More of this beautiful, haunting European series from Archaia)
THE REST
Countdown #51 (OK, I'll at least give the new weekly a shot... like many, though, I have 52 fatigue at this point)
First In Space GN (The story of America's first chimp in space from Oni... I've read it, it's good)
Immortal Iron Fist #5 (Not loving this book, but interested enough to keep reading)
Invincible #41 (Back onboard Invincible again, although the latest issue was a little blood-soaked for my taste)
Marvel Zombies Dead Days (The origin of the Marvel Zombies, by the original creative team)
Noble Causes #29 (I'm behind on Noble Causes, and I need to catch up)
Nova #2 (Very good first issue, looking forward to the second)
Okko Cycle Of Water #3 (Yay, it's Archaia week! Miyazaki-esque adventure book)
Secret History Book Two (Another Archaia book... first issue of this was gorgeous but story didn't quite click, plan on giving it another chance to hook me)
Sollitaria #1 (Intriguing looking new indy book)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #2 (Fun superheroics from Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo)
Star Wars Dark Times #3 (At long last, the third issue of this gorgeously illustrated and well-written Star Wars series comes out)
Thunderbolts #114 (I'm actually really enjoying this cynical anti-hero book)
Two Guns #2 (First issue of this unusual crime thriller was really good... glad to see the second issue arrive in a timely manner, too)
Y The Last Man #56 (Closing in on the end)
Y The Last Man Vol 9 Motherland TP (The penultimate Y The Last Man trade)
Monday, April 30, 2007
Blog Template Update for April
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
April was a fantastic month for single issue comics. I had a tough time cutting it down to 20, and the books that didn't make the cut included All-Star Superman #7 (a good issue, but one of the weaker ones for the series), Spider-Man Family #2 (great Spidey by Sean McKeever and Kano, good Spidey by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos), three Kirkman books on the cusp (Invincible #40, Irredeemable Ant-Man #7, Walking Dead #37), Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (classic superheroes by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo) and the latest issues of Ex Machina and Manhunter, which should give some indication of how good I think my top 20 were this month. Pretty good month for jumping-on points, too. Four issue ones make the list, and three of the others (DMZ, Fables and Runaways) are new story arcs or new creative teams.
In general, Marvel dominates the market right now, and maybe there's a good reason for that. Although I hated Civil War and I don't like a lot of the editorial direction of the universe in general, I still found 7 books that I really liked, three of which are directly Initiative/Civil War fallout-related, all but one of which is in continuity. Contrast that with DC, where there are two books, The Spirit and Brave and the Bold, which is as out of step with DC's modern, grim and gritty continuity as you can get. Marvel may not be exactly where I want them to be, but it seems that DC has really lost its way, and badly needs re-focusing. Of course, DC also offers Vertigo, where 4 of my favorite books come from. Dark Horse has two perennial favorites (BPRD and Usagi) and one new favorite (Whedon's Buffy). Boom! offers up a strong first issue (hope the second arrives in a timely fashion) with Steven Grant's Two Guns #1, and Adhouse offers up awesome in comic book form with Johnny Hiro #1. And Image has a strong single issue in Ellis and Templesmith's Fell and a potentially great new ongoing in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5.
Graphic novel a day is definitely dead, I just don't have time! In fact, my graphic novel reading for this month was down, such that I had a little trouble putting together a Top 10. Thankfully, a swell of interest in Ben Templesmith's work at the end put three of his graphic novels on there. Interestingly (to me, anyway), there are no Marvel or DC or even Vertigo trades on my list this month. It's all indy, the closest I get to mainstream is one Image book.
As predicted, Andy Barker is D.O.A. Just as well, I guess, as the last few episodes weren't as funny as the first couple. Also unsurprisingly killed on the TV Front, Drive, the new Fox/Tim Minear (a combination that is a synonym for early cancellation), which grudgingly makes my Top 10 (largely based on Nathan Fillion's work) on the basis of the three or four episodes that actually aired. How I Met Your Mother, Studio 60 and Veronica Mars are still M.I.A., but that didn't stop April from being a pretty good month for TV. I fell behind watching Raines and The Riches (although I want to get back to them) and completely gave up on 24 and Black Donnellys (before NBC did). 30 Rock had a fantastic two-part season finale, and here's hoping that Alec Baldwin's personal issues won't crash the show next season (it's certainly crashed my previously high opinion of the man). Heroes came back really strong, with ".07%" and the future episode from last night, and it's easily my second favorite show at the moment. Favorite? Oh, that'd be The Shield, which did an amazing two-part opening arc with Forest Whitaker and continued on in the dark, tense vein of the series after that. Also back, Entourage (not great, but good, and I love Carla Gugino so that earns it bonus points) and Sopranos (slow boil, which I know some folks hate but I'm kind of digging). Scrubs has finally picked up, and something on the NBC promos about "final four Scrubs" made me wonder, is this show ending? If so, it's probably about time, and I'd like it to go out strong. The Office came back and was continuously funny. And Lost has been up and down, but has had some really good episodes, and I'm still very much on board the show.
I fell a little behind on TV and Movie watching and Graphic Novel reading this month because, for the first time in a while, I finally picked up some prose. I've had the Harry Potter bug for a while, but wanting to watch The Order of the Phoenix trailer and knowing that the final book was coming out in July finally spurred me to read the books. So I spent this month reading the six Harry Potter books, and I really enjoyed them. My personal favorite is probably Goblet of Fire, if only because there's so much important set-up in there, followed closely by Half-Blood Prince and Prisoner of Azkaban. My least favorite (although I still really enjoyed it) is probably Order of the Phoenix, because it spent a lot of time building up the bad guys and none of them really got a harsh enough comeuppance for me. It's a good book, but the dark tone went a little far for my tastes. I'm now working my way through the movies (re-watched Sorcerer's Stone, saw Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time), and I'm just waiting for Goblet of Fire (which I know will be disappointing, as I can't imagine fitting enough into even a three-hour movie) from Netflix. In short, though, I was easily swept up into the cult of Harry Potter, and while I'm glad that the character is getting an ending, I'm already hoping that J.K. Rowling will open up the world when she's done with it so we can get comics or something of that nature set in the world. It's such a rich mythology she's created, I'd love to see more of it outside of the Harry Potter-Voldemort epic story.
Tons of new feeds this month. I keep finding artist blogs, like the one from Chad Thomas (talented guy I met at Wizard World Texas), Max Riffner (winner of the Isotope Mini-Comic Award) and Ted Lange (re-mixer of Super Mario and Shakespeare). There are a couple comics blogs I probably should have been reading before now, like Chris's Invincible Super-Blog (which seems like it's undergoing changes now), the amusing Pass/Fail Studios and Christopher Bird's Tetsubo Productions (where he has humorously, but convincingly, been campaigning to be made new writer of The Legion). Then there's Fisticuffs, in which artists' creations face off in imaginary battles voted upon by the readership, probably my favorite new site discovery of the month. Oh, and I once again started visiting The Engine and The Onion, although both are updated so frequently that I don't do much more than skim, in general.
April was a fantastic month for single issue comics. I had a tough time cutting it down to 20, and the books that didn't make the cut included All-Star Superman #7 (a good issue, but one of the weaker ones for the series), Spider-Man Family #2 (great Spidey by Sean McKeever and Kano, good Spidey by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos), three Kirkman books on the cusp (Invincible #40, Irredeemable Ant-Man #7, Walking Dead #37), Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (classic superheroes by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo) and the latest issues of Ex Machina and Manhunter, which should give some indication of how good I think my top 20 were this month. Pretty good month for jumping-on points, too. Four issue ones make the list, and three of the others (DMZ, Fables and Runaways) are new story arcs or new creative teams.
In general, Marvel dominates the market right now, and maybe there's a good reason for that. Although I hated Civil War and I don't like a lot of the editorial direction of the universe in general, I still found 7 books that I really liked, three of which are directly Initiative/Civil War fallout-related, all but one of which is in continuity. Contrast that with DC, where there are two books, The Spirit and Brave and the Bold, which is as out of step with DC's modern, grim and gritty continuity as you can get. Marvel may not be exactly where I want them to be, but it seems that DC has really lost its way, and badly needs re-focusing. Of course, DC also offers Vertigo, where 4 of my favorite books come from. Dark Horse has two perennial favorites (BPRD and Usagi) and one new favorite (Whedon's Buffy). Boom! offers up a strong first issue (hope the second arrives in a timely fashion) with Steven Grant's Two Guns #1, and Adhouse offers up awesome in comic book form with Johnny Hiro #1. And Image has a strong single issue in Ellis and Templesmith's Fell and a potentially great new ongoing in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5.
Graphic novel a day is definitely dead, I just don't have time! In fact, my graphic novel reading for this month was down, such that I had a little trouble putting together a Top 10. Thankfully, a swell of interest in Ben Templesmith's work at the end put three of his graphic novels on there. Interestingly (to me, anyway), there are no Marvel or DC or even Vertigo trades on my list this month. It's all indy, the closest I get to mainstream is one Image book.
As predicted, Andy Barker is D.O.A. Just as well, I guess, as the last few episodes weren't as funny as the first couple. Also unsurprisingly killed on the TV Front, Drive, the new Fox/Tim Minear (a combination that is a synonym for early cancellation), which grudgingly makes my Top 10 (largely based on Nathan Fillion's work) on the basis of the three or four episodes that actually aired. How I Met Your Mother, Studio 60 and Veronica Mars are still M.I.A., but that didn't stop April from being a pretty good month for TV. I fell behind watching Raines and The Riches (although I want to get back to them) and completely gave up on 24 and Black Donnellys (before NBC did). 30 Rock had a fantastic two-part season finale, and here's hoping that Alec Baldwin's personal issues won't crash the show next season (it's certainly crashed my previously high opinion of the man). Heroes came back really strong, with ".07%" and the future episode from last night, and it's easily my second favorite show at the moment. Favorite? Oh, that'd be The Shield, which did an amazing two-part opening arc with Forest Whitaker and continued on in the dark, tense vein of the series after that. Also back, Entourage (not great, but good, and I love Carla Gugino so that earns it bonus points) and Sopranos (slow boil, which I know some folks hate but I'm kind of digging). Scrubs has finally picked up, and something on the NBC promos about "final four Scrubs" made me wonder, is this show ending? If so, it's probably about time, and I'd like it to go out strong. The Office came back and was continuously funny. And Lost has been up and down, but has had some really good episodes, and I'm still very much on board the show.
I fell a little behind on TV and Movie watching and Graphic Novel reading this month because, for the first time in a while, I finally picked up some prose. I've had the Harry Potter bug for a while, but wanting to watch The Order of the Phoenix trailer and knowing that the final book was coming out in July finally spurred me to read the books. So I spent this month reading the six Harry Potter books, and I really enjoyed them. My personal favorite is probably Goblet of Fire, if only because there's so much important set-up in there, followed closely by Half-Blood Prince and Prisoner of Azkaban. My least favorite (although I still really enjoyed it) is probably Order of the Phoenix, because it spent a lot of time building up the bad guys and none of them really got a harsh enough comeuppance for me. It's a good book, but the dark tone went a little far for my tastes. I'm now working my way through the movies (re-watched Sorcerer's Stone, saw Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time), and I'm just waiting for Goblet of Fire (which I know will be disappointing, as I can't imagine fitting enough into even a three-hour movie) from Netflix. In short, though, I was easily swept up into the cult of Harry Potter, and while I'm glad that the character is getting an ending, I'm already hoping that J.K. Rowling will open up the world when she's done with it so we can get comics or something of that nature set in the world. It's such a rich mythology she's created, I'd love to see more of it outside of the Harry Potter-Voldemort epic story.
Tons of new feeds this month. I keep finding artist blogs, like the one from Chad Thomas (talented guy I met at Wizard World Texas), Max Riffner (winner of the Isotope Mini-Comic Award) and Ted Lange (re-mixer of Super Mario and Shakespeare). There are a couple comics blogs I probably should have been reading before now, like Chris's Invincible Super-Blog (which seems like it's undergoing changes now), the amusing Pass/Fail Studios and Christopher Bird's Tetsubo Productions (where he has humorously, but convincingly, been campaigning to be made new writer of The Legion). Then there's Fisticuffs, in which artists' creations face off in imaginary battles voted upon by the readership, probably my favorite new site discovery of the month. Oh, and I once again started visiting The Engine and The Onion, although both are updated so frequently that I don't do much more than skim, in general.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Cool Gaming Stuff in April
It occurred to me that, though I run a comics and game shop, I really only talk about comics for the most part here. Which might give the impression to the casual onlooker that I don't have much interest in games.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I've been a gamer as long as I've been a comics fan, and while my game collection isn't as extensive as my graphic novel collection, that mostly owes to having gotten rid of large chunks of it every time I've moved. I still have a few gems in my collection, from the beautifully designed Metabarons RPG to the White Wolf Adventure! book (with original fiction from Warren Ellis), and I've got a pretty healthy stock of stuff I still use, like D&D 3.5 and Eberron, HERO System 5th Edition material and a smattering of Feng Shui, Spycraft and Mutants & Masterminds. My board and card game collection is even smaller, but I do have Iron Dragon (a fun fantasy rail game), Lunch Money and way too many D&D Miniatures.
I play in two regular game groups (each one meeting somewhere between every week and every month, closer to the latter of late) and am currently running (with time off between sessions for other campaigns) two campaigns, a Champions game set in Austin and a D&D campaign set in Eberron.
So I thought, why not try a monthly write-up on the cool gaming stuff I saw this month and either purchased for myself or featured at the shop? Thus, this write-up.
For my part, I was prepping for my next D&D adventure in Eberron, so I bought a few more things this month than usual. I finally picked up the Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III to throw some variety at my players, and picked up a decent chunk of the new D&D minis set, Unhallowed, along with buying a few individual key minis off Ebay from various sets in preparation for the next adventure. I picked up two of the Gamemastery Map Tiles sets from Paizo (Dungeon and Haunted Mansion) and the other new Paizo release, the Critical Hit deck. Paizo makes a ton of cool game-related stuff, like their magnetic Combat Pad for keeping track of initiative, and the Crit deck is another new, cool thing. Basically, it's a 52 card deck, and when you confirm a critical hit, you pull a card from the deck. Each card has a listing of critical damage, with four different types (piercing, bludgeoning, slashing and magic). It's a fun little bit of spice for those bored with the "double damage" crits, and gives a bit of flavor to show just what you did that was such critical damage.
As for stuff that came out but I didn't pick up personally: Scion is a new self-contained (three books and out) RPG from White Wolf about the sons and daughters of Gods fighting the Titans and their spawn in modern-day, based on the Exalted rule mechanics. I've always found the World of Darkness a bit goth for my tastes, and Scion and Exalted are closer to my type of gaming. Wizards of the Coast released another map pack, City of Peril (I love that D&D minis has increased the number of full-color maps available for GMs), as well as a new Eberron super-adventure. It's below my current players' level, but I may pick it up at some point to run as a standalone. There was also Munchkin Cthulhu (the latest iteration of Steve Jackson's goofy but addictive spoof card game), new releases for the pre-painted sci-fi AT-43 game and a lot of other stuff. With unlimited time and money, I'm sure I would happily play all of these and more.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I've been a gamer as long as I've been a comics fan, and while my game collection isn't as extensive as my graphic novel collection, that mostly owes to having gotten rid of large chunks of it every time I've moved. I still have a few gems in my collection, from the beautifully designed Metabarons RPG to the White Wolf Adventure! book (with original fiction from Warren Ellis), and I've got a pretty healthy stock of stuff I still use, like D&D 3.5 and Eberron, HERO System 5th Edition material and a smattering of Feng Shui, Spycraft and Mutants & Masterminds. My board and card game collection is even smaller, but I do have Iron Dragon (a fun fantasy rail game), Lunch Money and way too many D&D Miniatures.
I play in two regular game groups (each one meeting somewhere between every week and every month, closer to the latter of late) and am currently running (with time off between sessions for other campaigns) two campaigns, a Champions game set in Austin and a D&D campaign set in Eberron.
So I thought, why not try a monthly write-up on the cool gaming stuff I saw this month and either purchased for myself or featured at the shop? Thus, this write-up.
For my part, I was prepping for my next D&D adventure in Eberron, so I bought a few more things this month than usual. I finally picked up the Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III to throw some variety at my players, and picked up a decent chunk of the new D&D minis set, Unhallowed, along with buying a few individual key minis off Ebay from various sets in preparation for the next adventure. I picked up two of the Gamemastery Map Tiles sets from Paizo (Dungeon and Haunted Mansion) and the other new Paizo release, the Critical Hit deck. Paizo makes a ton of cool game-related stuff, like their magnetic Combat Pad for keeping track of initiative, and the Crit deck is another new, cool thing. Basically, it's a 52 card deck, and when you confirm a critical hit, you pull a card from the deck. Each card has a listing of critical damage, with four different types (piercing, bludgeoning, slashing and magic). It's a fun little bit of spice for those bored with the "double damage" crits, and gives a bit of flavor to show just what you did that was such critical damage.
As for stuff that came out but I didn't pick up personally: Scion is a new self-contained (three books and out) RPG from White Wolf about the sons and daughters of Gods fighting the Titans and their spawn in modern-day, based on the Exalted rule mechanics. I've always found the World of Darkness a bit goth for my tastes, and Scion and Exalted are closer to my type of gaming. Wizards of the Coast released another map pack, City of Peril (I love that D&D minis has increased the number of full-color maps available for GMs), as well as a new Eberron super-adventure. It's below my current players' level, but I may pick it up at some point to run as a standalone. There was also Munchkin Cthulhu (the latest iteration of Steve Jackson's goofy but addictive spoof card game), new releases for the pre-painted sci-fi AT-43 game and a lot of other stuff. With unlimited time and money, I'm sure I would happily play all of these and more.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 2, 2007
It's been a bit hectic, so here are two weeks' worth of comics: the ones I'm reading this week and the ones I read last week.
TOP FIVE
Ancient Book Of Myth And War Hc (Should be a beautiful book, features Scott Morse and a couple other animators doing art on myth and war)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 (First two issues were gold... I'm digging this book)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #1 (New Hellboy! Duncan Fegredo art! Rock.)
Runaways #26 (Good first issue, Whedon's on a roll with me at the moment)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #3 (Second issue was hilarious, now I'm looking forward to reading the third)
THE REST
52 Week #52 (At this point, I'm mostly just relieved it's over... doesn't bode well for my interest in Countdown)
Alien Pig Farm #1 (Looks like fun... hope it doesn't do one issue and vanish, like Bad Planet did)
Avengers Initiative #2 (Enjoyed the first issue more than I thought I would... I'll stick around to see where they're going)
Bizarre New World #1 (Regular dude learns he can fly... interesting)
Civil War Captain America Tp (Best Civil War stories, period... and good continuation of Brubaker's Cap, too)
Danger Girl Body Shots #2 (First issue reminded me that this can be fun, kinda looking forward to reading the second)
Fantastic Four Visionaries Walter Simonson Vol 1 Tp (Interesting stuff, looking forward to reading it again)
Korgi Vol 1 Tp (New all-ages book from Top Shelf, with beautiful art... maybe the next Owly)
Raise The Dead #2 (First issue was a surprisingly solid little zombie tale)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #3 (Second issue wasn't as good as the first, but it still looked great)
Showcase Presents War That Time Forgot Vol 1 Tp (Dinosaurs vs. soldiers... when I have the time, I'll definitely be checking this one out)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #18 (I'm an issue behind, but I want to catch up)
Star Wars Legacy Vol 1 Broken Tp (Need to give this a shot now that it's out in trade form)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #5 (I'm an issue or two behind on this one, which is annoying because it's one of my favorites)
World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker (I'm intrigued, but Greg Pak's work has never done much for me)
LAST WEEK'S TOP FIVE
Agents Of Atlas Premiere HC (Looks great, wish it was oversized... will probably wind up picking it up)
Daredevil #96 (Digging this one, especially with DD getting out and fighting some street crime again)
Fantastic Four #545 (Best FF in years... the new FF takes on the Surfer. Great stuff from McDuffie and Pelletier)
Johnny Hiro #1 (An awesome comic book... one of the most fun books I've read all year)
Usagi Yojimbo #102 (Usagi vs. assassin... go!)
LAST WEEK'S THE REST
52 Week #51 (Wow, do I hate where this one is going. The Mr. Mind thing is really misguided. Although the Animal Man moments were great)
Astro City The Dark Ages 2 #3 (Just... kinda bored. Maybe it'll read better in trade)
Hunter's Moon #1 (Check out Wednesday Number Ones for this week for my thoughts)
Previews Vol #17.5 (Down the Line coming middle of this week)
Shenanigans Gn (Need to read this new graphic novel by Ian Shaughnessy when I get a chance)
Spider-man Visionaries Roger Stern Vol 1 Tp (Not his best stuff yet, but still Roger Stern Spider is worth a look)
Walking Dead #37 (Dealing with Lori's pregnancy, preparing for the assault by the Governor)
TOP FIVE
Ancient Book Of Myth And War Hc (Should be a beautiful book, features Scott Morse and a couple other animators doing art on myth and war)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 (First two issues were gold... I'm digging this book)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #1 (New Hellboy! Duncan Fegredo art! Rock.)
Runaways #26 (Good first issue, Whedon's on a roll with me at the moment)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #3 (Second issue was hilarious, now I'm looking forward to reading the third)
THE REST
52 Week #52 (At this point, I'm mostly just relieved it's over... doesn't bode well for my interest in Countdown)
Alien Pig Farm #1 (Looks like fun... hope it doesn't do one issue and vanish, like Bad Planet did)
Avengers Initiative #2 (Enjoyed the first issue more than I thought I would... I'll stick around to see where they're going)
Bizarre New World #1 (Regular dude learns he can fly... interesting)
Civil War Captain America Tp (Best Civil War stories, period... and good continuation of Brubaker's Cap, too)
Danger Girl Body Shots #2 (First issue reminded me that this can be fun, kinda looking forward to reading the second)
Fantastic Four Visionaries Walter Simonson Vol 1 Tp (Interesting stuff, looking forward to reading it again)
Korgi Vol 1 Tp (New all-ages book from Top Shelf, with beautiful art... maybe the next Owly)
Raise The Dead #2 (First issue was a surprisingly solid little zombie tale)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #3 (Second issue wasn't as good as the first, but it still looked great)
Showcase Presents War That Time Forgot Vol 1 Tp (Dinosaurs vs. soldiers... when I have the time, I'll definitely be checking this one out)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #18 (I'm an issue behind, but I want to catch up)
Star Wars Legacy Vol 1 Broken Tp (Need to give this a shot now that it's out in trade form)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #5 (I'm an issue or two behind on this one, which is annoying because it's one of my favorites)
World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker (I'm intrigued, but Greg Pak's work has never done much for me)
LAST WEEK'S TOP FIVE
Agents Of Atlas Premiere HC (Looks great, wish it was oversized... will probably wind up picking it up)
Daredevil #96 (Digging this one, especially with DD getting out and fighting some street crime again)
Fantastic Four #545 (Best FF in years... the new FF takes on the Surfer. Great stuff from McDuffie and Pelletier)
Johnny Hiro #1 (An awesome comic book... one of the most fun books I've read all year)
Usagi Yojimbo #102 (Usagi vs. assassin... go!)
LAST WEEK'S THE REST
52 Week #51 (Wow, do I hate where this one is going. The Mr. Mind thing is really misguided. Although the Animal Man moments were great)
Astro City The Dark Ages 2 #3 (Just... kinda bored. Maybe it'll read better in trade)
Hunter's Moon #1 (Check out Wednesday Number Ones for this week for my thoughts)
Previews Vol #17.5 (Down the Line coming middle of this week)
Shenanigans Gn (Need to read this new graphic novel by Ian Shaughnessy when I get a chance)
Spider-man Visionaries Roger Stern Vol 1 Tp (Not his best stuff yet, but still Roger Stern Spider is worth a look)
Walking Dead #37 (Dealing with Lori's pregnancy, preparing for the assault by the Governor)
Friday, April 13, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - April 18, 2007
TOP FIVE
Batman And The Mad Monk TP (My favorite Batman story of the last few years, written/drawn by Matt Wagner)
Brave And The Bold #3 (Possibly my favorite DC or Marvel Universe superhero book at the moment)
DMZ #18 (Starts a new story arc, and I'm loving this book)
Ex Machina #27 (After the Smoke Smoke trade, I'm back onboard this one bigger than I have been since the beginning)
Spirit #5 (Another favorite, Darwyn Cooke continues to amaze)
THE REST
52 Week #50 (Two weeks left until Countdown)
Daredevil Devil Inside & Out Vol 2 TP (Brubaker and Lark kick ass on Daredevil... still hoping for a hardcover, though)
Invincible #40 (Always fun, if erratic in shipping)
Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories Gn (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's experimental comics get a trade collection)
Manhunter #30 (Yay! Not cancelled! Now I just hope for a new trade announcement soon)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #12 (Ego Loves Earth! Jeff Parker continues to impress)
Nightwing Annual #2 (Marc Andreyko writes the story of Nightwing and Oracle's broken marriage promise)
Salon GN (Nick Bertozzi's artist noir about a serial killer hunting famous artists in Paris)
World War III (Weird that this is coming out before 52 concludes... curious but wary)
Batman And The Mad Monk TP (My favorite Batman story of the last few years, written/drawn by Matt Wagner)
Brave And The Bold #3 (Possibly my favorite DC or Marvel Universe superhero book at the moment)
DMZ #18 (Starts a new story arc, and I'm loving this book)
Ex Machina #27 (After the Smoke Smoke trade, I'm back onboard this one bigger than I have been since the beginning)
Spirit #5 (Another favorite, Darwyn Cooke continues to amaze)
THE REST
52 Week #50 (Two weeks left until Countdown)
Daredevil Devil Inside & Out Vol 2 TP (Brubaker and Lark kick ass on Daredevil... still hoping for a hardcover, though)
Invincible #40 (Always fun, if erratic in shipping)
Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories Gn (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's experimental comics get a trade collection)
Manhunter #30 (Yay! Not cancelled! Now I just hope for a new trade announcement soon)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #12 (Ego Loves Earth! Jeff Parker continues to impress)
Nightwing Annual #2 (Marc Andreyko writes the story of Nightwing and Oracle's broken marriage promise)
Salon GN (Nick Bertozzi's artist noir about a serial killer hunting famous artists in Paris)
World War III (Weird that this is coming out before 52 concludes... curious but wary)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The New Legion of Super-Heroes
Christopher Bird is currently running a campaign to become the new writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He's using photoshopped images to demonstrate his plans. These plans are completely awesome.
I'll say this... I'd read it, and I've been kinda bored by the Legion for years now.
I'll say this... I'd read it, and I've been kinda bored by the Legion for years now.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: I Wanna Be Alex Cox when I grow up
Not only is Rocketship a great name for a shop, not only do they have a kickass store complete with great fixtures, logo, T-Shirts, etc.
But Alex Cox is a very smart man, as evidenced by this thread at The Engine.
Our stores are very different, in no small part thanks to geography and customer base, etc., but in general retail philosophy, Alex Cox is one of my retailing role models.
But Alex Cox is a very smart man, as evidenced by this thread at The Engine.
Our stores are very different, in no small part thanks to geography and customer base, etc., but in general retail philosophy, Alex Cox is one of my retailing role models.
Weekly Comics to Come - April 11, 2007
TOP FIVE:
All-Star Superman #7 (Another issue of this book is always cause for celebration)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #2 (Same here, and the first issue of the newest BPRD was great)
Fables #60 (Beginning a new story arc with the regular creative team)
Loners #1 (Interested in this Runaways spinoff, as I like the characters and the art I've seen)
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 5 Dr Death TP (Recently caught up with volumes 3 and 4, looking forward to re-reading more... pure pulp goodness)
THE REST:
28 Days Later The Aftermath (Caught the movie a few months back and really dug it, curious to check out this original follow-up)
All Star Superman Vol 1 HC (I'd be more excited about this one if I hadn't decided to wait and see if they do an Absolute edition of all 12)
Conan & The Midnight God #3 (This King Conan mini has been really good)
Dynamo 5 #2 (Solid first issue of an intriguing new superhero team from Faerber and another impressive artist find)
Fell #8 (It's a rare treat, but I enjoy it when it comes out)
Ferro City Vol 1 TP (Robot noir, great art and interesting story)
Garage Band GN (Beautiful art, interesting concept)
Hack Slash Vol 2 Death By Sequel TP (Lots of fun in this horror/action original)
Heroes For Hire Vol 1 Civil War TP (Want to give this one another chance, based on good buzz and the other work of the writers, who I like a lot)
Madman Atomic Comics #1 (Reviews have been mixed, but it's good to see Allred's Madman back)
Mr. Stuffins #1 (Teddy Bear secret agent from Boom!... curious to check it out)
Nova #1 (New cosmic level Nova ongoing... not my personal favorite version of Nova, but still probably pretty good)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (The operative word is fun, and the creative team (Jeff Parker & Mike Wieringo) definitely ought to be able to offer that)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #17 (David Hahn picked up nicely on art, and McKeever hasn't lost a step either)
Thunderbolts #113 (Dark, satirical, and I'm mostly enjoying it)
Two Guns #1 (New crime comic from Boom!)
Uncanny X-Men #485 (Brubaker & Tan's Uncanny arc draws nearer to its close)
Wasteland #8 (Still curious to see where this one is going)
Wasteland Book 1 Cities In Dust TP (And looking forward to reading it in trade, where I think it'll read better)
All-Star Superman #7 (Another issue of this book is always cause for celebration)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #2 (Same here, and the first issue of the newest BPRD was great)
Fables #60 (Beginning a new story arc with the regular creative team)
Loners #1 (Interested in this Runaways spinoff, as I like the characters and the art I've seen)
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 5 Dr Death TP (Recently caught up with volumes 3 and 4, looking forward to re-reading more... pure pulp goodness)
THE REST:
28 Days Later The Aftermath (Caught the movie a few months back and really dug it, curious to check out this original follow-up)
All Star Superman Vol 1 HC (I'd be more excited about this one if I hadn't decided to wait and see if they do an Absolute edition of all 12)
Conan & The Midnight God #3 (This King Conan mini has been really good)
Dynamo 5 #2 (Solid first issue of an intriguing new superhero team from Faerber and another impressive artist find)
Fell #8 (It's a rare treat, but I enjoy it when it comes out)
Ferro City Vol 1 TP (Robot noir, great art and interesting story)
Garage Band GN (Beautiful art, interesting concept)
Hack Slash Vol 2 Death By Sequel TP (Lots of fun in this horror/action original)
Heroes For Hire Vol 1 Civil War TP (Want to give this one another chance, based on good buzz and the other work of the writers, who I like a lot)
Madman Atomic Comics #1 (Reviews have been mixed, but it's good to see Allred's Madman back)
Mr. Stuffins #1 (Teddy Bear secret agent from Boom!... curious to check it out)
Nova #1 (New cosmic level Nova ongoing... not my personal favorite version of Nova, but still probably pretty good)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (The operative word is fun, and the creative team (Jeff Parker & Mike Wieringo) definitely ought to be able to offer that)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #17 (David Hahn picked up nicely on art, and McKeever hasn't lost a step either)
Thunderbolts #113 (Dark, satirical, and I'm mostly enjoying it)
Two Guns #1 (New crime comic from Boom!)
Uncanny X-Men #485 (Brubaker & Tan's Uncanny arc draws nearer to its close)
Wasteland #8 (Still curious to see where this one is going)
Wasteland Book 1 Cities In Dust TP (And looking forward to reading it in trade, where I think it'll read better)
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Comicon Las Vegas
Katherine Keller of Sequential Tart has an excellent article up arguing why the San Diego Comicon should make plans to move to Vegas sooner rather than later.
I agree whole-heartedly. I love San Diego, and the town is part of the reason I'm always excited to go, but it's gotten to where you have to book your hotel a year in advance, and even then there's no guarantee. Vegas would have no such problems, the flights would be cheaper from almost anywhere (meaning more money to spend at the Con itself) and the city certainly doesn't lack for other things to do.
I really hope that the planners behind Comicon are looking into this. I love San Diego, but just as with last year, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to attend, simply because I can't find a place to stay that's anywhere within reasonable distance. And I started looking in February, five months before the convention takes place.
I agree whole-heartedly. I love San Diego, and the town is part of the reason I'm always excited to go, but it's gotten to where you have to book your hotel a year in advance, and even then there's no guarantee. Vegas would have no such problems, the flights would be cheaper from almost anywhere (meaning more money to spend at the Con itself) and the city certainly doesn't lack for other things to do.
I really hope that the planners behind Comicon are looking into this. I love San Diego, but just as with last year, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to attend, simply because I can't find a place to stay that's anywhere within reasonable distance. And I started looking in February, five months before the convention takes place.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Good News in Threes
Yay!
1. 30 Rock has been renewed for another season. To see one reason why this is a good thing, check this out:
2. Comics are on their way to Austin as we speak
3. The Shield is back, and it's awesome. As always. Sopranos and Entourage start again on Sunday.
1. 30 Rock has been renewed for another season. To see one reason why this is a good thing, check this out:
2. Comics are on their way to Austin as we speak
3. The Shield is back, and it's awesome. As always. Sopranos and Entourage start again on Sunday.
Adventures in Retailing: Uh... where's the fourth box?
So today I got acquainted with one of those delights of retailing, the unfortunate UPS/Diamond shipping mishap. It's happened a lot, usually with one region getting their books a week ahead of time. Minor when it's something like Madman shipping out of L.A. this week, Plattsburgh next. Major when it's Civil War shipping to everywhere but the West Coast one week, then out to the West Coast the next.
But there are also those that just hit one retailer, and not his local competition. UPS ships a lot of boxes, so does Diamond, mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunately, we happen to be in a business where product as late as a day late is worth less, because a fanatical customer base will sometimes go to another store in town regardless of loyalty to get their weekly fix. It's the downside of creating such a rabidly devoted fanbase.
So this was a big week. Dark Tower #3, Buffy #2, the last part of Planet Hulk, Avengers: The Initiative #1, the first part of Fallen Son, the first issue of Joss Whedon's Runaways... and out of that list, we only got one of those books. The rest (along with several others) were stuck in Houston. Which doesn't seem insurmountable, given that Houston is only about three hours away and I was willing to drive, but I was pretty much told they weren't going to let me in if I went there, and even if I had gone, I wouldn't have been back until many of my customers had already stopped in.
It couldn't have been the box with the Batman free Heroclix for Free Comic Book Day that went missing. Or the one with about three or four smaller books. No, it had to be the heaviest one, packed with all the big sellers.
It was a frustrating morning. I yelled about every obscenity I knew on the long drive back from the UPS center to the shop, and tried desperately to come up with some great tactic that would make customers coming in pick up something else, then come back for their comics on Thursday. There isn't one, by the way... on Wednesday, folks want what they want, they don't want a substitute. I was frustrated and pissed off and, given that this is the first week we've had to do Wednesday morning pulls, maybe even a little worried.
But here's the upside: We still had a pretty good day. Not just sales-wise, although I have to say that the sales hit was less than I thought, thanks to Dark Tower, 52, the new Omega Flight and a number of other mid-level books that we did get. No, mostly it was in seeing that in such a situation, I can count on the people around me. My staff commiserated with me but didn't let me wallow, nor did they wallow themselves. They buckled down and did their jobs. They told every customer what had gone on with a sense of good humor, they worked their asses off on a busy day... one of my staffers asked if I needed him tomorrow morning and didn't complain for a second about having to get up early the next day when he was supposed to have a mid-day shift. I have the best staff in the world.
And some of the best customers, too. Everyone was sympathetic, nobody got mad at us, everybody made plans to come back tomorrow or just hold off and pick stuff up with next week's pulls. All told, we lost some day's sales, but I don't think that many folks went driving somewhere else to get the copy today. We've always done right by them, they remembered that and they rewarded us for it.
It sucks to have something like this happen, especially on a huge week like this one. And yeah, it was a shitty morning and a hectic day. But in the end, it turned out to be kind of a positive, as I was reminded once again that I'm lucky to have a good store, a great staff and a great bunch of customers.
Not so positive an experience that I want it to ever happen again, mind you. :)
But there are also those that just hit one retailer, and not his local competition. UPS ships a lot of boxes, so does Diamond, mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunately, we happen to be in a business where product as late as a day late is worth less, because a fanatical customer base will sometimes go to another store in town regardless of loyalty to get their weekly fix. It's the downside of creating such a rabidly devoted fanbase.
So this was a big week. Dark Tower #3, Buffy #2, the last part of Planet Hulk, Avengers: The Initiative #1, the first part of Fallen Son, the first issue of Joss Whedon's Runaways... and out of that list, we only got one of those books. The rest (along with several others) were stuck in Houston. Which doesn't seem insurmountable, given that Houston is only about three hours away and I was willing to drive, but I was pretty much told they weren't going to let me in if I went there, and even if I had gone, I wouldn't have been back until many of my customers had already stopped in.
It couldn't have been the box with the Batman free Heroclix for Free Comic Book Day that went missing. Or the one with about three or four smaller books. No, it had to be the heaviest one, packed with all the big sellers.
It was a frustrating morning. I yelled about every obscenity I knew on the long drive back from the UPS center to the shop, and tried desperately to come up with some great tactic that would make customers coming in pick up something else, then come back for their comics on Thursday. There isn't one, by the way... on Wednesday, folks want what they want, they don't want a substitute. I was frustrated and pissed off and, given that this is the first week we've had to do Wednesday morning pulls, maybe even a little worried.
But here's the upside: We still had a pretty good day. Not just sales-wise, although I have to say that the sales hit was less than I thought, thanks to Dark Tower, 52, the new Omega Flight and a number of other mid-level books that we did get. No, mostly it was in seeing that in such a situation, I can count on the people around me. My staff commiserated with me but didn't let me wallow, nor did they wallow themselves. They buckled down and did their jobs. They told every customer what had gone on with a sense of good humor, they worked their asses off on a busy day... one of my staffers asked if I needed him tomorrow morning and didn't complain for a second about having to get up early the next day when he was supposed to have a mid-day shift. I have the best staff in the world.
And some of the best customers, too. Everyone was sympathetic, nobody got mad at us, everybody made plans to come back tomorrow or just hold off and pick stuff up with next week's pulls. All told, we lost some day's sales, but I don't think that many folks went driving somewhere else to get the copy today. We've always done right by them, they remembered that and they rewarded us for it.
It sucks to have something like this happen, especially on a huge week like this one. And yeah, it was a shitty morning and a hectic day. But in the end, it turned out to be kind of a positive, as I was reminded once again that I'm lucky to have a good store, a great staff and a great bunch of customers.
Not so positive an experience that I want it to ever happen again, mind you. :)
Monday, April 02, 2007
Blog Template Update for March
This is the latest monthly update to the right column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.
Well, March was a hell of a month for comics. For me personally, I didn't have a ton of new stuff, but I did have to pare down the list to get to 20, and there were a lot of good graphic novels. For me as a new retailer, it was a phenomenal month. The Death of Captain America, the new Buffy comic, The Dark Tower series, etc. etc. There were a couple new books I liked, including Jay Faerber's new superhero book Dynamo 5, McDuffie and McKone taking over the FF and Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's excellent first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but mostly it was reliable favorites. 3 DC books (Spirit, Brave and the Bold and Manhunter, the common denominator of the first two is fun and the third is just an example of how to take advantage of the ongoing series format), 8 Marvel (despite my hatred of Civil War, which probably speaks to the level of talent at Marvel right now), only 2 Vertigo (no Jack of Fables or American Virgin in March, and Fables was a little weak) and 7 indies (2 Dark Horse, 3 Image, 1 Oni, 1 Devil's Due).
Graphic novel a day may be pretty much dead as a feature. It's not that I'm not reading them, it's that I just can't seem to find the time and energy to write about them. At any rate, I think I read more like a graphic novel every other day, but the Daredevil Omnibus took me four days to get through, and then I was inspired to go back and reread Born Again (pretty damn good) and Man Without Fear (not as good as I'd remembered.) I also tried to read the Daredevil/Elektra Love and War HC with Elektra: Assassin in it, but found it pretentious and boring and didn't get past issue one of Elektra: Assassin.
No new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Studio 60 or Veronica Mars. Only two episodes of 30 Rock, but they were both really good. Heroes only had one, "Parasite," but it was a phenomenal episode, maybe the second best in the show's history, after "Company Man" the previous week. Thankfully, Andy Barker P.I. is a really funny new show (that's probably dead, given that it's smart and quirky) and The Riches is dark, features a brilliant cast and has my mild interest. Raines is imperfect and probably going to get old but has some style and a great lead actor in Jeff Goldblum, not to mention a terrific (and underused) supporting actress in Nicole Sullivan. Finally got around to watching the first episode of The Black Donnellys, and I like it... good crime stuff, maybe not exceptional when compared to stuff like The Shield, but certainly watchable... of course, I haven't watched the rest of the episodes on my Tivo, which tells you how deep my interest runs. Good thing, too, as it's been pulled to make way for a reality show about jackasses crashing real weddings... which the (stupid) couple is in on. Yeah, gay marriage would totally cheapen the institution, but bringing on the producers of Punk'd to ruin it weekly on national television, that's fucking perfectly acceptable. I'm annoyed the show is even on the air, I'd be livid if it were replacing something I really liked.
As for the familiar shows... Scrubs has been pretty weak, but came on strong late in the month, and besides, pickings are kinda slim right now for new episodes. Battlestar Galactica, after stumbling around punch-drunk ever since the show lifted off from New Caprica, delivers a nice one-two punch of a season ender. Now if only they can come on stronger next season and really follow up on all that potential... hopefully with an ending before the whole thing just gets old. Lost also stumbled a bit early this year, but has had some really strong episodes lately, and the confrontation between Ben and Locke was probably one of the best moments of the show ever. And 24... well, it's 24. Formulaic, getting predictable, but serving up good action and amusingly predictable "24" moments of torture, Kiefer Sutherland yelling and impossible to believe bad security at CTU. The latest episode, which sees Jack teaming up to fight crime with a developmentally disabled man who was working with his brother the mercenary terrorist, was cringe-worthy. I might be done with 24. Fortunately, April sees the return of The Shield, Entourage and The Sopranos, as well as Heroes, so it's looking like a good TV month.
My novel for March was Gates of Fire. Which I borrowed, but haven't read. Novel of the month is just a spectacular failure, I guess.
This was a month for discovering a ton of new feeds. There was a new webcomic out of New Orleans, starring my friend Leo and written/drawn by Josh Neufeld (New Orleans A.D. After the Deluge), there was the re-independencing of Comics, Covered, and through links to Comic Pants, I found an interesting comics review/commentary site called Blurred Productions. But mostly, it was a month of finding people whose work I love doing blogs. I was delighted to find blogs for Becky Cloonan, Cliff Chiang and Vasilis Lolos, three of my favorite artists. I was interested to find a blog from TV writer Jane Espenson. A link to the brilliant Steampunk Star Wars art he's doing lead me to Eric Poulton. And most importantly, a random link from Entertainment Weekly let me find the site of Alan Sepinwall, professional TV critic whose writings I've been reading since I found a link from rec.arts.comics usenet to his NYPD Blue recap sites. Alan is one of the best TV critics I've read, both because his tastes seem to synch up nicely with mine and because he can write in a style that is witty, intelligent, insightful and yet relatively spoiler-free. I'm delighted to be able to read his writing on a regular basis again.
Well, March was a hell of a month for comics. For me personally, I didn't have a ton of new stuff, but I did have to pare down the list to get to 20, and there were a lot of good graphic novels. For me as a new retailer, it was a phenomenal month. The Death of Captain America, the new Buffy comic, The Dark Tower series, etc. etc. There were a couple new books I liked, including Jay Faerber's new superhero book Dynamo 5, McDuffie and McKone taking over the FF and Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's excellent first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but mostly it was reliable favorites. 3 DC books (Spirit, Brave and the Bold and Manhunter, the common denominator of the first two is fun and the third is just an example of how to take advantage of the ongoing series format), 8 Marvel (despite my hatred of Civil War, which probably speaks to the level of talent at Marvel right now), only 2 Vertigo (no Jack of Fables or American Virgin in March, and Fables was a little weak) and 7 indies (2 Dark Horse, 3 Image, 1 Oni, 1 Devil's Due).
Graphic novel a day may be pretty much dead as a feature. It's not that I'm not reading them, it's that I just can't seem to find the time and energy to write about them. At any rate, I think I read more like a graphic novel every other day, but the Daredevil Omnibus took me four days to get through, and then I was inspired to go back and reread Born Again (pretty damn good) and Man Without Fear (not as good as I'd remembered.) I also tried to read the Daredevil/Elektra Love and War HC with Elektra: Assassin in it, but found it pretentious and boring and didn't get past issue one of Elektra: Assassin.
No new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Studio 60 or Veronica Mars. Only two episodes of 30 Rock, but they were both really good. Heroes only had one, "Parasite," but it was a phenomenal episode, maybe the second best in the show's history, after "Company Man" the previous week. Thankfully, Andy Barker P.I. is a really funny new show (that's probably dead, given that it's smart and quirky) and The Riches is dark, features a brilliant cast and has my mild interest. Raines is imperfect and probably going to get old but has some style and a great lead actor in Jeff Goldblum, not to mention a terrific (and underused) supporting actress in Nicole Sullivan. Finally got around to watching the first episode of The Black Donnellys, and I like it... good crime stuff, maybe not exceptional when compared to stuff like The Shield, but certainly watchable... of course, I haven't watched the rest of the episodes on my Tivo, which tells you how deep my interest runs. Good thing, too, as it's been pulled to make way for a reality show about jackasses crashing real weddings... which the (stupid) couple is in on. Yeah, gay marriage would totally cheapen the institution, but bringing on the producers of Punk'd to ruin it weekly on national television, that's fucking perfectly acceptable. I'm annoyed the show is even on the air, I'd be livid if it were replacing something I really liked.
As for the familiar shows... Scrubs has been pretty weak, but came on strong late in the month, and besides, pickings are kinda slim right now for new episodes. Battlestar Galactica, after stumbling around punch-drunk ever since the show lifted off from New Caprica, delivers a nice one-two punch of a season ender. Now if only they can come on stronger next season and really follow up on all that potential... hopefully with an ending before the whole thing just gets old. Lost also stumbled a bit early this year, but has had some really strong episodes lately, and the confrontation between Ben and Locke was probably one of the best moments of the show ever. And 24... well, it's 24. Formulaic, getting predictable, but serving up good action and amusingly predictable "24" moments of torture, Kiefer Sutherland yelling and impossible to believe bad security at CTU. The latest episode, which sees Jack teaming up to fight crime with a developmentally disabled man who was working with his brother the mercenary terrorist, was cringe-worthy. I might be done with 24. Fortunately, April sees the return of The Shield, Entourage and The Sopranos, as well as Heroes, so it's looking like a good TV month.
My novel for March was Gates of Fire. Which I borrowed, but haven't read. Novel of the month is just a spectacular failure, I guess.
This was a month for discovering a ton of new feeds. There was a new webcomic out of New Orleans, starring my friend Leo and written/drawn by Josh Neufeld (New Orleans A.D. After the Deluge), there was the re-independencing of Comics, Covered, and through links to Comic Pants, I found an interesting comics review/commentary site called Blurred Productions. But mostly, it was a month of finding people whose work I love doing blogs. I was delighted to find blogs for Becky Cloonan, Cliff Chiang and Vasilis Lolos, three of my favorite artists. I was interested to find a blog from TV writer Jane Espenson. A link to the brilliant Steampunk Star Wars art he's doing lead me to Eric Poulton. And most importantly, a random link from Entertainment Weekly let me find the site of Alan Sepinwall, professional TV critic whose writings I've been reading since I found a link from rec.arts.comics usenet to his NYPD Blue recap sites. Alan is one of the best TV critics I've read, both because his tastes seem to synch up nicely with mine and because he can write in a style that is witty, intelligent, insightful and yet relatively spoiler-free. I'm delighted to be able to read his writing on a regular basis again.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - April 4, 2007
TOP FIVE
American Virgin #13 (The latest story has been really good, and just reintroduced one of my favorite characters)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (First issue was excellent, I'm really looking forward to reading the second)
Jack Of Fables #9 (After three weaker issues of Fables, the spinoff has surpassed its parent... this book is a whole lot of fun)
Runaways #25 (After Buffy #1, Whedon has the benefit of the doubt for me again... even though he's moving the team to New York and only writing 6 issues)
Elk's Run GN (Really looking forward to reading the whole story of this... I think the story belongs in graphic novel format, and the issues were just tantalizing enough to have me wondering how it all ends up)
THE REST
52 Week #48 (If pressed, I couldn't really tell you what's happening in this book. I'm reading it, and mostly enjoying it, but it's making no impact at all)
Avengers Initiative #1 (I'm not sure I like it as the status quo for the Marvel Universe, but in a vacuum, the 50 state initiative is kind of a neat idea, and Dan Slott is writing... I'll at least give this a look)
Immortal Iron Fist #4 (I think I might rather read this in trade... I like it, but the pacing is kinda slow)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #7 (Still a fun, unusual book)
Omega Flight #1 (Love Scott Kolins art, lukewarm on Oeming's writing, not crazy about the concept for this team)
Spider-Man Family #2 (Features a story by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos, looking forward to seeing how it turns out)
American Virgin #13 (The latest story has been really good, and just reintroduced one of my favorite characters)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (First issue was excellent, I'm really looking forward to reading the second)
Jack Of Fables #9 (After three weaker issues of Fables, the spinoff has surpassed its parent... this book is a whole lot of fun)
Runaways #25 (After Buffy #1, Whedon has the benefit of the doubt for me again... even though he's moving the team to New York and only writing 6 issues)
Elk's Run GN (Really looking forward to reading the whole story of this... I think the story belongs in graphic novel format, and the issues were just tantalizing enough to have me wondering how it all ends up)
THE REST
52 Week #48 (If pressed, I couldn't really tell you what's happening in this book. I'm reading it, and mostly enjoying it, but it's making no impact at all)
Avengers Initiative #1 (I'm not sure I like it as the status quo for the Marvel Universe, but in a vacuum, the 50 state initiative is kind of a neat idea, and Dan Slott is writing... I'll at least give this a look)
Immortal Iron Fist #4 (I think I might rather read this in trade... I like it, but the pacing is kinda slow)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #7 (Still a fun, unusual book)
Omega Flight #1 (Love Scott Kolins art, lukewarm on Oeming's writing, not crazy about the concept for this team)
Spider-Man Family #2 (Features a story by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos, looking forward to seeing how it turns out)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
My Daughter's Birthday
Katy turns four today. She shares her birthday with Mariah Carey, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Jamiroquai and Quentin Tarantino.
This year we bought her a scooter, which she loves and is learning to use. Don't worry... we also bought her a helmet.
This year we bought her a scooter, which she loves and is learning to use. Don't worry... we also bought her a helmet.
Weekly Comics to Come - March 28, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Daredevil #95 (Last arc wrapped strong, where does Brubaker go from here?)
DMZ #17 (Finale of the latest arc, which has been really good)
Fables #59 (The readers questions issue... should be very interesting)
Fantastic Four #544 (Dwayne McDuffie's run on FF starts in earnest this issue)
Pirates of Coney Island #5 (The story of Cadillacula revealed! One of my favorite series of the moment)
THE REST:
52 Week #47 (Big happenings as the series draws to a close... only 5 weeks left)
Gamekeeper #1 (Andy Diggle and Guy Ritchie doing a comic... I'm there, even if Virgin's offerings mostly leave me cold)
Godland #17 (More cosmic super action from Casey and Scioli)
Grendel Devil By The Deed Hc (Looking forward to digging back into Grendel)
Half Dead Tp (Vampires, conspiracies, secret agents and paramilitary units... a good mix)
Houdini Handcuff King Center Of Cartoon Studies Hc (True tales of Houdini by Jason Lutes)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 1 HC (Finally, Miyazawa's gorgeous art and McKeever's great stories in oversized format that shows them off)
Previews #27.4 (Down the Line is already half-written... no huge delays this month)
Superman Confidential #4 (Running late, but probably worth the wait)
Texas Strangers #1 (All-ages fun from Image)
Usagi Yojimbo #101 (After a terrific roast issue, back to more traditional samurai stories)
Wonder Woman #6 (I'll check out Jodi Picoult's intro, but honestly, after Heinberg's more or less aborted run, my interest is lower than ever)
Daredevil #95 (Last arc wrapped strong, where does Brubaker go from here?)
DMZ #17 (Finale of the latest arc, which has been really good)
Fables #59 (The readers questions issue... should be very interesting)
Fantastic Four #544 (Dwayne McDuffie's run on FF starts in earnest this issue)
Pirates of Coney Island #5 (The story of Cadillacula revealed! One of my favorite series of the moment)
THE REST:
52 Week #47 (Big happenings as the series draws to a close... only 5 weeks left)
Gamekeeper #1 (Andy Diggle and Guy Ritchie doing a comic... I'm there, even if Virgin's offerings mostly leave me cold)
Godland #17 (More cosmic super action from Casey and Scioli)
Grendel Devil By The Deed Hc (Looking forward to digging back into Grendel)
Half Dead Tp (Vampires, conspiracies, secret agents and paramilitary units... a good mix)
Houdini Handcuff King Center Of Cartoon Studies Hc (True tales of Houdini by Jason Lutes)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 1 HC (Finally, Miyazawa's gorgeous art and McKeever's great stories in oversized format that shows them off)
Previews #27.4 (Down the Line is already half-written... no huge delays this month)
Superman Confidential #4 (Running late, but probably worth the wait)
Texas Strangers #1 (All-ages fun from Image)
Usagi Yojimbo #101 (After a terrific roast issue, back to more traditional samurai stories)
Wonder Woman #6 (I'll check out Jodi Picoult's intro, but honestly, after Heinberg's more or less aborted run, my interest is lower than ever)
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Graphic Novel A Day: Extreme Cheater Edition
I've been a little busy, but I have been reading graphic novels on a mostly daily basis. I just haven't had time to do write-ups. So rather than go through and back-date a bunch of posts, find images, etc., which I'll probably just keep procrastinating on, here's a list of what I've read and quick thoughts:
Star Wars Visionaries TP (Dark Horse) - Stories and art from concept artists who worked on Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Most of the stories are pretty weak, save a decent offering about a soldier on Hoth by Alex Jaeger and M. Zachary Sherman and an interesting and beautifully painted story about the origin of General Grievous by Warren Fu. But the art throughout is really nice, and the concept art showcased really cool. I would have preferred this to be a gallery piece, mostly showing off unused concept art, but it's an interesting idea for a Star Wars book at any rate.
Mutation Vol. 1 TP (Markosia) - Really nice Bruce Timm-esque art, some solid superhero slugfests, but the stories just don't make any sense. It's clear what writer George Singley is aiming for, a basic no-calorie superhero action book, but he needs a little bit more of a hook to make it anything but pretty fights by Ethan Beavers.
Captain Gravity and the Power of the Vril TP (Penny-Farthing) - A somewhat overwrought and melodramatic take on the pulps, Dysart's script should have dialed back a little on the angst and aimed for a more fun, pulp spirit, but despite that, it's a pretty solidly entertaining yarn that is more or less true to the nature of pulp superheroes. Also, terrific art by Sal Velluto (with some inks by his Black Panther compadre Bob Almond), nice colors by Mike Garcia and solid production values from Penny-Farthing. Never rises to great, but a solid B offering.
B.P.R.D. Vol. 6: Universal Machine TP (Dark Horse Comics) - Another fantastic offering from the regular BPRD creative team, revealing some of the secret history of zombie captain Ben Daimio and really allowing non-powered agent Kate Corrigan time to shine as she bargains with a sadistic demon for the return of Roger the Homunculus. Plus, as always, Guy Davis and Dave Stewart just bring the house down with the art.
Ex Machina Vol. 5: Smoke Smoke TP (DC/Wildstorm) - The best Ex Machina trade since the first one, including flashbacks to Hundred's days as a hero, intrigue within his cabinet, great supporting cast (love the two gay firefighters more than most of Mitchell's actual support staff) and a fantastic single issues shedding light on the past of his bodyguard Bradbury. Terrific art by Harris, Feister and Mettler as well. This might be my favorite Brian Vaughan book at the moment.
Para TP (Penny Farthing) - Stuart Moore's tale of a supercollider accident, a grieving daughter and an investigation into what happened starts off intriguing and creepy and then quickly goes off into bizarre, borderline superhero/sci-fi territory where it doesn't belong. Too much over-the-top technology like killer robots and other-dimensional ghosts, and the spooky, X-Files-ish vibe of the early issues is lost. Good mystery setup, extremely dissatisfying resolution.
One Page Filler Man (Image) - Jim Mahfood just cuts loose and makes it up as he goes along. The results are mixed, but the art is strong and there are great, fun bits throughout.
The Norm In Color (The Norm.com) - This is a gorgeously produced book. Michael Jantze is an extremely talented cartoonist, and his work in color is jaw-dropping, comparable to some of the greats like Berke Breathed or Bill Watterson. Seriously, there's a visual imagination at work here that takes aspects of pop culture and cartoon culture, breaks them down and incorporates them, and it's stunning. Unfortunately, the subject matter of too many of the strips and the gags resulting are often overly familiar riffs on guys and girls and relationships, without much new to offer. That's not to say there aren't laughs to be found, or genuinely touching moments, or that The Norm is bad. Indeed, it's very entertaining most of the time, in the same way that a good, solid sitcom can be entertaining. It's just that visually, the book is breaking boundaries, but its story and characters are of a more standard variety, and art this great deserves stories just as great.
Avengers/JLA (Marvel/DC) - Finally broke down and bought this deluxe hardcover, and I still really like the story. It's a kind of old school team-up we'll not see again, given that the fans seem to want a much different kind of darker, more "realistic" superhero universe from both Marvel and DC. Makes for a last great hurrah for these types of stories, though, with amazing art by George Perez and a real love-letter to the characters by Kurt Busiek that still manages to be an exciting, classic style superhero story at the same time. The companion volume, with all the background on the Marvel/DC crossovers in general (and JLA/Avengers specifically), is also a nice treat.
Degrassi The Next Generation Vol. 1: Extra Credit (Pocket Books) - Planning to write a review of this J. Torres-penned graphic novel at Comic Pants at some point. In short, it's a lot like Breaking Up (with art by Christine Norrie) - good craftsmanship, and though I'm not really the target audience, I can tell that it does what it sets out to do very well.
King City Vol. 1 (Tokyopop) - This one I did review at Comic Pants. Loved it. My favorite graphic novel read of the month thus far.
Giant Robot Warriors (AIT/Planet Lar) - Reviewed this one at Comic Pants as well.
Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm TP (Top Shelf) - An emotionally charged look at a sad little boy and the uncle who tries desperately to connect with him, and a has-been hockey player who finds a friend in the boy. Lovely art, and a poignant, effective portrayal of complicated relationships.
Star Wars Visionaries TP (Dark Horse) - Stories and art from concept artists who worked on Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Most of the stories are pretty weak, save a decent offering about a soldier on Hoth by Alex Jaeger and M. Zachary Sherman and an interesting and beautifully painted story about the origin of General Grievous by Warren Fu. But the art throughout is really nice, and the concept art showcased really cool. I would have preferred this to be a gallery piece, mostly showing off unused concept art, but it's an interesting idea for a Star Wars book at any rate.
Mutation Vol. 1 TP (Markosia) - Really nice Bruce Timm-esque art, some solid superhero slugfests, but the stories just don't make any sense. It's clear what writer George Singley is aiming for, a basic no-calorie superhero action book, but he needs a little bit more of a hook to make it anything but pretty fights by Ethan Beavers.
Captain Gravity and the Power of the Vril TP (Penny-Farthing) - A somewhat overwrought and melodramatic take on the pulps, Dysart's script should have dialed back a little on the angst and aimed for a more fun, pulp spirit, but despite that, it's a pretty solidly entertaining yarn that is more or less true to the nature of pulp superheroes. Also, terrific art by Sal Velluto (with some inks by his Black Panther compadre Bob Almond), nice colors by Mike Garcia and solid production values from Penny-Farthing. Never rises to great, but a solid B offering.
B.P.R.D. Vol. 6: Universal Machine TP (Dark Horse Comics) - Another fantastic offering from the regular BPRD creative team, revealing some of the secret history of zombie captain Ben Daimio and really allowing non-powered agent Kate Corrigan time to shine as she bargains with a sadistic demon for the return of Roger the Homunculus. Plus, as always, Guy Davis and Dave Stewart just bring the house down with the art.
Ex Machina Vol. 5: Smoke Smoke TP (DC/Wildstorm) - The best Ex Machina trade since the first one, including flashbacks to Hundred's days as a hero, intrigue within his cabinet, great supporting cast (love the two gay firefighters more than most of Mitchell's actual support staff) and a fantastic single issues shedding light on the past of his bodyguard Bradbury. Terrific art by Harris, Feister and Mettler as well. This might be my favorite Brian Vaughan book at the moment.
Para TP (Penny Farthing) - Stuart Moore's tale of a supercollider accident, a grieving daughter and an investigation into what happened starts off intriguing and creepy and then quickly goes off into bizarre, borderline superhero/sci-fi territory where it doesn't belong. Too much over-the-top technology like killer robots and other-dimensional ghosts, and the spooky, X-Files-ish vibe of the early issues is lost. Good mystery setup, extremely dissatisfying resolution.
One Page Filler Man (Image) - Jim Mahfood just cuts loose and makes it up as he goes along. The results are mixed, but the art is strong and there are great, fun bits throughout.
The Norm In Color (The Norm.com) - This is a gorgeously produced book. Michael Jantze is an extremely talented cartoonist, and his work in color is jaw-dropping, comparable to some of the greats like Berke Breathed or Bill Watterson. Seriously, there's a visual imagination at work here that takes aspects of pop culture and cartoon culture, breaks them down and incorporates them, and it's stunning. Unfortunately, the subject matter of too many of the strips and the gags resulting are often overly familiar riffs on guys and girls and relationships, without much new to offer. That's not to say there aren't laughs to be found, or genuinely touching moments, or that The Norm is bad. Indeed, it's very entertaining most of the time, in the same way that a good, solid sitcom can be entertaining. It's just that visually, the book is breaking boundaries, but its story and characters are of a more standard variety, and art this great deserves stories just as great.
Avengers/JLA (Marvel/DC) - Finally broke down and bought this deluxe hardcover, and I still really like the story. It's a kind of old school team-up we'll not see again, given that the fans seem to want a much different kind of darker, more "realistic" superhero universe from both Marvel and DC. Makes for a last great hurrah for these types of stories, though, with amazing art by George Perez and a real love-letter to the characters by Kurt Busiek that still manages to be an exciting, classic style superhero story at the same time. The companion volume, with all the background on the Marvel/DC crossovers in general (and JLA/Avengers specifically), is also a nice treat.
Degrassi The Next Generation Vol. 1: Extra Credit (Pocket Books) - Planning to write a review of this J. Torres-penned graphic novel at Comic Pants at some point. In short, it's a lot like Breaking Up (with art by Christine Norrie) - good craftsmanship, and though I'm not really the target audience, I can tell that it does what it sets out to do very well.
King City Vol. 1 (Tokyopop) - This one I did review at Comic Pants. Loved it. My favorite graphic novel read of the month thus far.
Giant Robot Warriors (AIT/Planet Lar) - Reviewed this one at Comic Pants as well.
Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm TP (Top Shelf) - An emotionally charged look at a sad little boy and the uncle who tries desperately to connect with him, and a has-been hockey player who finds a friend in the boy. Lovely art, and a poignant, effective portrayal of complicated relationships.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - March 21, 2007
TOP FIVE
Brave And The Bold #2 (One of my favorite superhero debuts this year, looking forward to issue two)
Empowered TP (Adam Warren pokes fun at how the superhero genre treats women... potentially entertaining, certain to look great)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #16 (David Hahn joins on art, Firestar shows up in the story)
Spirit #4 (Issue #3 was excellent... can't wait to see what's next)
Y The Last Man #55 (On the home stretch)
THE REST
52 Week #46 (Nothing new to say here... still reading)
Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Vol 1 (Curious to check out this car chase, guns and hot girls manga)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #11 (Since Parker's return, this book has been a lot of fun again)
Walking Dead #36 (I'm back onboard after a strong issue #35)
Brave And The Bold #2 (One of my favorite superhero debuts this year, looking forward to issue two)
Empowered TP (Adam Warren pokes fun at how the superhero genre treats women... potentially entertaining, certain to look great)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #16 (David Hahn joins on art, Firestar shows up in the story)
Spirit #4 (Issue #3 was excellent... can't wait to see what's next)
Y The Last Man #55 (On the home stretch)
THE REST
52 Week #46 (Nothing new to say here... still reading)
Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Vol 1 (Curious to check out this car chase, guns and hot girls manga)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #11 (Since Parker's return, this book has been a lot of fun again)
Walking Dead #36 (I'm back onboard after a strong issue #35)
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - March 14, 2007
TOP FIVE
BPRD Garden Of Souls #1 (One of my favorite series is back with a new miniseries)
Damned #5 (Great miniseries gets a conclusion, can't wait to see how it ends)
Fables #58 (The second of two with Allred's guest art)
King City Vol 1 (New OEL manga from imaginative and talented artist Brandon Graham)
Pvp Vol 4 Pvp Goes Bananas TP (Another volume of Scott Kurtz's delightful humor title)
THE REST
52 Week #45 (Coming into the home stretch, and I'm still interested)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Wary of superhero version of Buffy, but still curious enough to give it a read)
Hack Slash Vs Chucky (Cassie Hack faces off against her first licensed villain... should be fun)
Irredeemable Ant-man #6 (More superhero depravity, but in a good way)
Tag Cursed #2 (First issue was spooky and effective, curious to see more)
Thunderbolts #112 (Disliked the second issue, but I'll give it another chance to win me back)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #1 (One of my favorite series is back with a new miniseries)
Damned #5 (Great miniseries gets a conclusion, can't wait to see how it ends)
Fables #58 (The second of two with Allred's guest art)
King City Vol 1 (New OEL manga from imaginative and talented artist Brandon Graham)
Pvp Vol 4 Pvp Goes Bananas TP (Another volume of Scott Kurtz's delightful humor title)
THE REST
52 Week #45 (Coming into the home stretch, and I'm still interested)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Wary of superhero version of Buffy, but still curious enough to give it a read)
Hack Slash Vs Chucky (Cassie Hack faces off against her first licensed villain... should be fun)
Irredeemable Ant-man #6 (More superhero depravity, but in a good way)
Tag Cursed #2 (First issue was spooky and effective, curious to see more)
Thunderbolts #112 (Disliked the second issue, but I'll give it another chance to win me back)
Friday, March 09, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: Bitch, bitch, bitch
Kind of interesting to read the various reactions around the Internet, from the retailing perspective, on Captain America... and find myself agreeing with none of them.
Joe Riley's angry tirade against Marvel seems unfair and a bit pissy that Marvel didn't anticipate the retailers' every move and counter it. Yes, Marvel could have given the info about the overprint a little earlier so that everyone could have gotten onboard with a direct ship delivery next week instead of having to wait another week until March 21st. Yeah, I'm a little annoyed about that turn of events, too. But you know who I'm most annoyed at? Me, for not going with my instinct and trying to put in an order on Wednesday. Instead, reality slapped me in the face at 2 PM on Thursday when I realized that even if they weren't available, I should call in to Diamond and see what future plans would be. Retailing isn't supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be work, and you're supposed to use your head and try to think about what's coming. Frustrating when it doesn't work, and certainly Marvel could have made things easier, but this is not something for which editorial heads should roll.
Customers are coming into your store, excited about a comic book. Many of them are not regular customers, but new people, full of potential to buy comics from your store. If they're leaving frustrated, it's at least partly your fault, because they *can* get their comic, they might just have to wait a week or two for it. If they've ever tried to buy a hot videogame or videogame system on release day (and the odds are good that they have) they're going to understand that. Unless you gripe at them about Marvel's short-sightedness and how they're trying to screw your business, in which case they might just decide you're right and comics aren't worth it.
Of course, Garner Loudermilk's defense of Marvel is arrogant, insulting and factually wrong. First of all, he considers DC's over-printing of Superman a mistake, lamenting that "now the book is barely worth a little over cover." He further spews "If Marvel has learned from DC's mistake then I for one am glad of this. If they over-printed the book then there is no chance of the book rising in value."
Garner, as someone who watched the entire industry nearly collapse thanks to assholes speculating on comics like commodities, allow me to offer a hearty "go fuck yourself." Rising in value? Bullshit. A secondary market where the book rises in value benefits Ebay, and those who view comics as stocks and bonds with four-color covers. It doesn't help Marvel (should they not print a trade, too, just in case?), it doesn't help retailers in the long run, it doesn't help the fanbase, it doesn't help the industry. Your knowledge of the comics industry is about 12 years late, so maybe you ought to clam up and do some research before you go shooting your mouth off.
Garner also offers this gem: "Where it went wrong is store owners failing to capitalize on it. Don't blame the industry, blame yourself. You knew it was selling, you read three months ago in Previews when it said someone was going to die. If you failed to order up on it and are losing out on sales, it's your fault."
In point of fact, no one read three months ago in Previews that someone was going to die. You know what we read? "CIVIL WAR - CLASSIFIED - More information to come." Except it didn't. Again... get your facts straight before you start making accusations. What the hell does a marketing associate for a toy company know about comics retail, anyway? Then he goes on to blame the fans for not pre-ordering:
"But if the customers didn't have it on their subscription list at their local comic shop then again that is their fault, not Marvel's."
Yeah, fanboys, why didn't you know that Captain America was going to die and that CNN and every news organization was going to pick it up and it was going to sell out? Why didn't you plan to buy a comic you don't regularly pick up three months ago because Marvel said it was going to be big? They've never lied about that kind of thing before, and really, shouldn't everyone be buying their comics three months ahead of time instead of coming in to the shop to browse and buy what they're interested in then?
Again, what Garner knows about comics retailing could clearly fill a thimble. But he's got a Grand Canyon sized bowl full of disdain for retailers and comic fans.
But I think I might start calling Chris Butcher before I place any of my comics orders in the future... he has some sort of crystal ball that always allows him to get things exactly right. And if some of us were caught unawares by the level of the demand, we must be idiots. Because anyone who didn't *know* that it was going to be a giant media event and thus quadruple their regular orders so they could sell out the next day rather than the day of is clearly not doing their job properly. As we all know, there are no variables to ordering comics retail, and if you don't guess everything 100% correctly all of the time, you are not doing your job properly.
Joe Riley's angry tirade against Marvel seems unfair and a bit pissy that Marvel didn't anticipate the retailers' every move and counter it. Yes, Marvel could have given the info about the overprint a little earlier so that everyone could have gotten onboard with a direct ship delivery next week instead of having to wait another week until March 21st. Yeah, I'm a little annoyed about that turn of events, too. But you know who I'm most annoyed at? Me, for not going with my instinct and trying to put in an order on Wednesday. Instead, reality slapped me in the face at 2 PM on Thursday when I realized that even if they weren't available, I should call in to Diamond and see what future plans would be. Retailing isn't supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be work, and you're supposed to use your head and try to think about what's coming. Frustrating when it doesn't work, and certainly Marvel could have made things easier, but this is not something for which editorial heads should roll.
Customers are coming into your store, excited about a comic book. Many of them are not regular customers, but new people, full of potential to buy comics from your store. If they're leaving frustrated, it's at least partly your fault, because they *can* get their comic, they might just have to wait a week or two for it. If they've ever tried to buy a hot videogame or videogame system on release day (and the odds are good that they have) they're going to understand that. Unless you gripe at them about Marvel's short-sightedness and how they're trying to screw your business, in which case they might just decide you're right and comics aren't worth it.
Of course, Garner Loudermilk's defense of Marvel is arrogant, insulting and factually wrong. First of all, he considers DC's over-printing of Superman a mistake, lamenting that "now the book is barely worth a little over cover." He further spews "If Marvel has learned from DC's mistake then I for one am glad of this. If they over-printed the book then there is no chance of the book rising in value."
Garner, as someone who watched the entire industry nearly collapse thanks to assholes speculating on comics like commodities, allow me to offer a hearty "go fuck yourself." Rising in value? Bullshit. A secondary market where the book rises in value benefits Ebay, and those who view comics as stocks and bonds with four-color covers. It doesn't help Marvel (should they not print a trade, too, just in case?), it doesn't help retailers in the long run, it doesn't help the fanbase, it doesn't help the industry. Your knowledge of the comics industry is about 12 years late, so maybe you ought to clam up and do some research before you go shooting your mouth off.
Garner also offers this gem: "Where it went wrong is store owners failing to capitalize on it. Don't blame the industry, blame yourself. You knew it was selling, you read three months ago in Previews when it said someone was going to die. If you failed to order up on it and are losing out on sales, it's your fault."
In point of fact, no one read three months ago in Previews that someone was going to die. You know what we read? "CIVIL WAR - CLASSIFIED - More information to come." Except it didn't. Again... get your facts straight before you start making accusations. What the hell does a marketing associate for a toy company know about comics retail, anyway? Then he goes on to blame the fans for not pre-ordering:
"But if the customers didn't have it on their subscription list at their local comic shop then again that is their fault, not Marvel's."
Yeah, fanboys, why didn't you know that Captain America was going to die and that CNN and every news organization was going to pick it up and it was going to sell out? Why didn't you plan to buy a comic you don't regularly pick up three months ago because Marvel said it was going to be big? They've never lied about that kind of thing before, and really, shouldn't everyone be buying their comics three months ahead of time instead of coming in to the shop to browse and buy what they're interested in then?
Again, what Garner knows about comics retailing could clearly fill a thimble. But he's got a Grand Canyon sized bowl full of disdain for retailers and comic fans.
But I think I might start calling Chris Butcher before I place any of my comics orders in the future... he has some sort of crystal ball that always allows him to get things exactly right. And if some of us were caught unawares by the level of the demand, we must be idiots. Because anyone who didn't *know* that it was going to be a giant media event and thus quadruple their regular orders so they could sell out the next day rather than the day of is clearly not doing their job properly. As we all know, there are no variables to ordering comics retail, and if you don't guess everything 100% correctly all of the time, you are not doing your job properly.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: Feeding Frenzy
So... anybody reading Captain America lately?
It was an interesting week. We knew something big was coming, because when the writer of the book tells you "Order more copies" you're more inclined to do it than when you hear it from marketing or (especially) from an editor in chief who is given to hype. So we doubled our orders on Captain America #25, a book that already has been selling pretty well for us.
As a result, we sold out by 4 PM instead of by 1 PM. I don't feel like I could have done much better... based on vague promises of "This is going to be big," I really couldn't hit my Civil War numbers. I mean, Marvel promised the same thing with Civil War: The Return, and if I had ordered Civil War numbers on that book, I'd *still* be eating the costs. By the time we get our Cap reorders, we'll be well over Civil War's numbers, though.
This being my first time dealing with Diamond back orders and a book this highly anticipated, I almost missed the boat entirely on putting in back orders, and as it is, I missed the somewhat arbitrary Thursday noon deadline, so that the majority of my books will be arriving a little later. I'm not quite sure why the direct ship deadline is Thursday noon for Captain America and Monday by 5 PM for everything else, but hey, it's an unusual situation, so I'm willing to roll with it and hope my customers can hold out for the extra week it'll take me to restock. I'm not *happy* about it, but I'm not gnashing my teeth and screaming at Diamond or Marvel about it. I've noticed that retailers like to bitch, about everything, and frankly I don't want to be one of those guys. I'd like to reserve my bitching for when I think it's constructive and at least a little bit fair.
Sure, Marvel could have handled it better. They knew enough about how big this was going to be to coordinate with the media, and to have an overprint ready. What would have been nice is if they had made sure the overprint was available the day of, so that when intrepid retailers who use the Diamond website to check stock went to see the availability, they didn't get the rather daunting impression that the book was gone, and there wasn't any point in calling my Diamond rep to ask about it.
But they really couldn't have told retailers what was going to happen. Truth is, someone in the retail community would have blabbed, ruining the story not only for the media and diminishing its attention from a business standpoint, but for the fans. We would have known the story two months ago, rather than having Yahoo! news spoil it the day of. I don't like ordering based on the invisible solicits we've been getting from Marvel, but this was a big secret to keep, and as long as it doesn't become a habit, I'm OK with it this one time.
My bigger worry is the larger scale implications of it. I was working comics retail when the Death of Superman hit. I remember lines out the door, excitement and frustration at the prices. I remember skyrocketing sales, brought down by a near-crash of the industry when people realized they'd essentially been scammed. And I worry that we're watching the whole thing repeat.
But... with any luck, the retailers who are left are smarter. I hope that a lot of the fanbase is too. The people buying Cap should know that Superman came back, and Cap will too. So far, it seems that a lot of people looking for the issue aren't looking to fund their kids' college education, but just to read what sounds like a pretty earth-shattering story. I know I've been doing my best to tell people who are buying it that it's a good story, not a commodity that's going to appreciate with time. In the short term, the comic is going for insane amounts on Ebay (and if you bought Cap #25 for like $50 or more, I'm very sorry because in about two weeks, anyone should be able to walk into a comics shop and get it for less than $5), but in the long-term, it's going to have the price of Spawn #1 or the Death of Superman issues.
This is a huge opportunity to get outsiders into comics. I hope we don't fuck it up this time. For my part, I'm going to be making up bookmarks to give away that point readers to Brubaker's Cap trades, to Criminal, to Sleeper, to Daredevil. I'm going to be doing my best to make sure that folks who come in to see Captain America's death see the breadth of what comics have to offer. And I'm going to do my best to make sure that anyone who walks out with Captain America #25 has bought it with their eyes open, so that in a few months they don't decide that comics made a bunch of false promises and the whole medium isn't worth their time.
Now, might this cost some short-term sales? Might we accidentally turn off a speculator who wants to buy 10 copies and slab them at CGC? Might we make a mint selling a few copies on Ebay for outrageous prices? Sure. But I'm more interested in the long-term, in using this very successful event to gain fans of the medium. I'd love it if in a few years, when I'm telling people "I own a comic shop" they don't say "Oh, yeah, what's my Captain America #25 worth?" but rather "Oh yeah, I started buying comics again after they killed Captain America... there's a lot of good stuff in comics."
It's a pretty good time for a comic book retailer to snag casual customers. I got a big 'ol stack of $30 300 hardcovers today... three of them were presold, it wouldn't surprise me too much if I wind up having to reorder more in the next week. Transformers is right around the corner, and is raising interest in IDW's well-produced Transformers books. Fantastic Four hits this summer, and while I question the timing of replacing the familiar team with Black Panther and Storm, having Dwayne McDuffie on as writer means that fans coming off the movie will have something cool to read. Add in Dark Tower (which sold gangbusters with its second issue this week), Buffy (coming next week), Anita Blake, etc. etc. and comics are doing better than ever at reaching out to new audiences. I feel like this was the right time to buy a shop.
It was an interesting week. We knew something big was coming, because when the writer of the book tells you "Order more copies" you're more inclined to do it than when you hear it from marketing or (especially) from an editor in chief who is given to hype. So we doubled our orders on Captain America #25, a book that already has been selling pretty well for us.
As a result, we sold out by 4 PM instead of by 1 PM. I don't feel like I could have done much better... based on vague promises of "This is going to be big," I really couldn't hit my Civil War numbers. I mean, Marvel promised the same thing with Civil War: The Return, and if I had ordered Civil War numbers on that book, I'd *still* be eating the costs. By the time we get our Cap reorders, we'll be well over Civil War's numbers, though.
This being my first time dealing with Diamond back orders and a book this highly anticipated, I almost missed the boat entirely on putting in back orders, and as it is, I missed the somewhat arbitrary Thursday noon deadline, so that the majority of my books will be arriving a little later. I'm not quite sure why the direct ship deadline is Thursday noon for Captain America and Monday by 5 PM for everything else, but hey, it's an unusual situation, so I'm willing to roll with it and hope my customers can hold out for the extra week it'll take me to restock. I'm not *happy* about it, but I'm not gnashing my teeth and screaming at Diamond or Marvel about it. I've noticed that retailers like to bitch, about everything, and frankly I don't want to be one of those guys. I'd like to reserve my bitching for when I think it's constructive and at least a little bit fair.
Sure, Marvel could have handled it better. They knew enough about how big this was going to be to coordinate with the media, and to have an overprint ready. What would have been nice is if they had made sure the overprint was available the day of, so that when intrepid retailers who use the Diamond website to check stock went to see the availability, they didn't get the rather daunting impression that the book was gone, and there wasn't any point in calling my Diamond rep to ask about it.
But they really couldn't have told retailers what was going to happen. Truth is, someone in the retail community would have blabbed, ruining the story not only for the media and diminishing its attention from a business standpoint, but for the fans. We would have known the story two months ago, rather than having Yahoo! news spoil it the day of. I don't like ordering based on the invisible solicits we've been getting from Marvel, but this was a big secret to keep, and as long as it doesn't become a habit, I'm OK with it this one time.
My bigger worry is the larger scale implications of it. I was working comics retail when the Death of Superman hit. I remember lines out the door, excitement and frustration at the prices. I remember skyrocketing sales, brought down by a near-crash of the industry when people realized they'd essentially been scammed. And I worry that we're watching the whole thing repeat.
But... with any luck, the retailers who are left are smarter. I hope that a lot of the fanbase is too. The people buying Cap should know that Superman came back, and Cap will too. So far, it seems that a lot of people looking for the issue aren't looking to fund their kids' college education, but just to read what sounds like a pretty earth-shattering story. I know I've been doing my best to tell people who are buying it that it's a good story, not a commodity that's going to appreciate with time. In the short term, the comic is going for insane amounts on Ebay (and if you bought Cap #25 for like $50 or more, I'm very sorry because in about two weeks, anyone should be able to walk into a comics shop and get it for less than $5), but in the long-term, it's going to have the price of Spawn #1 or the Death of Superman issues.
This is a huge opportunity to get outsiders into comics. I hope we don't fuck it up this time. For my part, I'm going to be making up bookmarks to give away that point readers to Brubaker's Cap trades, to Criminal, to Sleeper, to Daredevil. I'm going to be doing my best to make sure that folks who come in to see Captain America's death see the breadth of what comics have to offer. And I'm going to do my best to make sure that anyone who walks out with Captain America #25 has bought it with their eyes open, so that in a few months they don't decide that comics made a bunch of false promises and the whole medium isn't worth their time.
Now, might this cost some short-term sales? Might we accidentally turn off a speculator who wants to buy 10 copies and slab them at CGC? Might we make a mint selling a few copies on Ebay for outrageous prices? Sure. But I'm more interested in the long-term, in using this very successful event to gain fans of the medium. I'd love it if in a few years, when I'm telling people "I own a comic shop" they don't say "Oh, yeah, what's my Captain America #25 worth?" but rather "Oh yeah, I started buying comics again after they killed Captain America... there's a lot of good stuff in comics."
It's a pretty good time for a comic book retailer to snag casual customers. I got a big 'ol stack of $30 300 hardcovers today... three of them were presold, it wouldn't surprise me too much if I wind up having to reorder more in the next week. Transformers is right around the corner, and is raising interest in IDW's well-produced Transformers books. Fantastic Four hits this summer, and while I question the timing of replacing the familiar team with Black Panther and Storm, having Dwayne McDuffie on as writer means that fans coming off the movie will have something cool to read. Add in Dark Tower (which sold gangbusters with its second issue this week), Buffy (coming next week), Anita Blake, etc. etc. and comics are doing better than ever at reaching out to new audiences. I feel like this was the right time to buy a shop.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Vanished
I have not, in fact, vanished from the planet. I have been doing three things:
1) Attending (and helping run) STAPLE!, which went great this year. Report to follow... eventually.
2) Running my shop - things going well, except that I am now preparing for federal income tax, and there is nothing I hate and fear more than dealing with taxes. My experience thus far this year is doing nothing to change my mind on that score.
Seriously. I'd rather go to the dentist, and I'm notoriously bad about going to the dentist.
3) Wasting time on the Internet. This one's mostly tonight, as I finally dove into about a week's worth of RSS feeds. But I did find some really cool stuff. Such as:
Josh Neufeld's work on A.D. After Deluge, a must-read story about Hurricane Katrina that features as one of its characters my friend Leo.
Self-proclaimed "art nerd" and creator of very funny posts and an amazingly cool steampunk re-invention of Star Wars Eric Poulton's blog.
There's plenty more, including some new features up at Act-i-vate, but those are a couple of links to look into where people are actually producing regular content, unlike me.
I have been reading graphic novels, but haven't posted Graphic Novel A Day posts for them. Tomorrow is a day off (mostly), so maybe I'll finally get to write some of those, and maybe write Down the Line for this month as well.
1) Attending (and helping run) STAPLE!, which went great this year. Report to follow... eventually.
2) Running my shop - things going well, except that I am now preparing for federal income tax, and there is nothing I hate and fear more than dealing with taxes. My experience thus far this year is doing nothing to change my mind on that score.
Seriously. I'd rather go to the dentist, and I'm notoriously bad about going to the dentist.
3) Wasting time on the Internet. This one's mostly tonight, as I finally dove into about a week's worth of RSS feeds. But I did find some really cool stuff. Such as:
Josh Neufeld's work on A.D. After Deluge, a must-read story about Hurricane Katrina that features as one of its characters my friend Leo.
Self-proclaimed "art nerd" and creator of very funny posts and an amazingly cool steampunk re-invention of Star Wars Eric Poulton's blog.
There's plenty more, including some new features up at Act-i-vate, but those are a couple of links to look into where people are actually producing regular content, unlike me.
I have been reading graphic novels, but haven't posted Graphic Novel A Day posts for them. Tomorrow is a day off (mostly), so maybe I'll finally get to write some of those, and maybe write Down the Line for this month as well.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - March 7, 2007
TOP FIVE
Captain America #25 (I'm nervous about the "big change," but excited to see what Brubaker and Epting will do, as always)
Criminal #5 (The end of the first arc, and this is easily my most anticipated book of the week... I'm so happy to be quoted on the cover)
Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm Tp (Interesting new book from Top Shelf, I glanced at it during STAPLE! last weekend and it looked good)
Fantastic Four #543 (Anniversary issue, I believe, with a number of contributors including Paul Pope)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #2 (First issue was among the best things I've read this year)
THE REST
52 Week #44 (Still reading... will probably read Countdown... DC has their hooks in me)
Authority #2 (After this long of a wait, I honestly don't care... but I will at least give it a flip-through)
Borrowed Time #2 (First issue of this Oni series was amazing Twilight Zone-esque stuff, looking forward to more)
Dynamo 5 #1 (Promising new superhero with a twist series from Jay Faerber at Image)
Ex Machina Vol 5 Smoke Smoke Tp (Good storyline in this trade)
Fall Of Cthulhu #0 (Boom! does Cthulhu, and I'll be checking it out)
Manhunter #29 (Not cancelled - yay! Now if only they'd get a new number one to really promote it)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #1 (First was a guilty pleasure, with Layman writing this is gonna be pretty whacked)
Strongarm #1 (Interesting new Image series with manga-style art)
Captain America #25 (I'm nervous about the "big change," but excited to see what Brubaker and Epting will do, as always)
Criminal #5 (The end of the first arc, and this is easily my most anticipated book of the week... I'm so happy to be quoted on the cover)
Essex County Vol 1 Tales From The Farm Tp (Interesting new book from Top Shelf, I glanced at it during STAPLE! last weekend and it looked good)
Fantastic Four #543 (Anniversary issue, I believe, with a number of contributors including Paul Pope)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #2 (First issue was among the best things I've read this year)
THE REST
52 Week #44 (Still reading... will probably read Countdown... DC has their hooks in me)
Authority #2 (After this long of a wait, I honestly don't care... but I will at least give it a flip-through)
Borrowed Time #2 (First issue of this Oni series was amazing Twilight Zone-esque stuff, looking forward to more)
Dynamo 5 #1 (Promising new superhero with a twist series from Jay Faerber at Image)
Ex Machina Vol 5 Smoke Smoke Tp (Good storyline in this trade)
Fall Of Cthulhu #0 (Boom! does Cthulhu, and I'll be checking it out)
Manhunter #29 (Not cancelled - yay! Now if only they'd get a new number one to really promote it)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #1 (First was a guilty pleasure, with Layman writing this is gonna be pretty whacked)
Strongarm #1 (Interesting new Image series with manga-style art)
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Graphic Novel A Day: Jack of Fables Vol. 1
Writers: Bill Willingham & Matthew SturgesArtists: Tony Akins & Andrew Pepoy
Company: DC Comics/Vertigo
Price: $14.99
I wasn't sure about a spinoff from Fables, despite it being my favorite book, but as it turns out, Jack of Fables is different, but every bit as good, as the book it originated from. Following Jack, the archetypal scoundrel, the book features a willfully fourth-wall breaking narration style that really works, cleverly populated Fables worlds outside the ones we see in the Fables book itself and the same sense of humor, strong plotting and great moment-to-moment writing I've come to expect from Fables. Tony Akins and Andrew Pepoy hit the same high notes as Fables artist Mark Buckingham, and the whole thing feels like a fun roadtrip out of Fables land and into the real world, with one of the most larger than life Fables as your guide. A fun read even if you've never read Fables, an absolute must-read if you like that book.
Adventures in Retailing: Civil War
No, not the Marvel event, although, well, sort of.
No, I'm referring to the Civil War within myself, a retailer who cannot stand most of the creative decisions Marvel is making these days... even as I find myself applauding them from a business standpoint.
If you look at the numbers, the current regime at Marvel looks like geniuses. Civil War was a sales monolith, a crossover that boosted numbers on every book it touched (in some cases raising books sinking towards cancellation, like Black Panther, up to become viable entities). And post-Civil War, they're capitalizing better than DC did on Infinite Crisis.
Now the events themselves, Infinite Crisis and Civil War, suffer from much of the same problems. Lackluster plots. Recognizable heroes acting wildly out of character for shock value. Tons of C-lister characters that the average audience doesn't care about and the audience that *does* recognize them probably mostly cringes expecting the writers to off them for shock value. A weak ending, helped not at all by storytelling that seemed to veer off in one direction or another throughout, rather than aiming at one particular story target and hitting it. In the case of Civil War, lateness. In the case of Infinite Crisis, dozens of fill-in artists to avoid lateness.
However, after Infinite Crisis, DC had two big plans to hang onto their sales boost: A weekly title and "One Year Later," an event allowing the creators to shake up the main books. The weekly title was a big hit, but it probably drained some excitement from the main books. And the main books didn't help but being really, really dull in general. As with the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite having that very thing as an example, editorial tried to have its cake and eat it to. Rather than biting the bullet, renumbering every book with a new number one and giving the whole thing an across the board shake-up/ground-up relaunch, some books were radically altered, most were given cursory pretend alterations and some just went on with business as usual. The result? Fast sales drops back to pre-OYL levels.
Marvel, on the other hand, seems poised to capitalize. The Spider-Man books had been sinking in sales prior to Civil War, but saw a big boost during Civil War. So how do you keep that audience? Knock off a major supporting character, bring back the popular black costume. Did it work? Anecdotally, the answer seems to be yes in my store. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sold twice what it usually does for us, Sensational Spider-Man sold about 50% more, and we haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's back up to healthy numbers as well.
Civil War had a limp ending, but it did offer up a new status quo, and Marvel is poised to jump on that, with a handful of new series and miniseries and new directions for many of its titles. Too soon to tell how it's going to shake out, but Iron Man, Director of SHIELD sold better than any Iron Man issues since the first few of the Ellis/Granov run (before it became so late nobody cared). Folks seem excited about the idea of the Initiative. Captain America #25 has huge buzz as being something big. New Avengers sold out fast and got reordered. Mighty Avengers has some buzz.
Now personally, what's selling is the last thing I want to read. I found New Avengers #27, which sees Doctor Strange, Power Man and other notable heroes fighting ninjas (that fight should take about one page... it's a waste of the characters), ridiculous and annoying. The idea of Iron Man as director of SHIELD isn't awful, but it doesn't hold any particular interest for me. And the notion of all the Marvel heroes forming some sort of nationwide army split into 50 states seems like a bizarre decision to completely uproot the foundation of the Marvel Universe as it has stood since the beginning.
But... as a retailer, I can't help but be happy that Marvel has found a way to reinvigorate interest in these characters. I mean, a Moon Knight series selling the way Charlie Huston's book has is amazing, even if I find the whole thing banal and pointlessly ultra-violent. The Avengers are a complete and utter betrayal of the concept of the team, and yet it's selling better than any version of the book that I've loved. Spider-Man: Reign seems like a viciously nihilistic misunderstanding of the appeal of the character and a weak Dark Knight Returns ripoff, but it's doing pretty solid numbers and selling out.
So what can we learn? One, it's clear that my general guidelines for Marvel and DC superheroes (let them be heroic, make them at least somewhat consistent with the past, don't be embarrassed about superhero conventions) may in fact be diametrically opposed to what the readership at large wants. And two, it is possible to be mostly bored and/or disgusted with what's going on in mainstream superhero comics and at the same time elated by it. Just tie your financial fortunes into the very books you don't very much like. ;)
No, I'm referring to the Civil War within myself, a retailer who cannot stand most of the creative decisions Marvel is making these days... even as I find myself applauding them from a business standpoint.
If you look at the numbers, the current regime at Marvel looks like geniuses. Civil War was a sales monolith, a crossover that boosted numbers on every book it touched (in some cases raising books sinking towards cancellation, like Black Panther, up to become viable entities). And post-Civil War, they're capitalizing better than DC did on Infinite Crisis.
Now the events themselves, Infinite Crisis and Civil War, suffer from much of the same problems. Lackluster plots. Recognizable heroes acting wildly out of character for shock value. Tons of C-lister characters that the average audience doesn't care about and the audience that *does* recognize them probably mostly cringes expecting the writers to off them for shock value. A weak ending, helped not at all by storytelling that seemed to veer off in one direction or another throughout, rather than aiming at one particular story target and hitting it. In the case of Civil War, lateness. In the case of Infinite Crisis, dozens of fill-in artists to avoid lateness.
However, after Infinite Crisis, DC had two big plans to hang onto their sales boost: A weekly title and "One Year Later," an event allowing the creators to shake up the main books. The weekly title was a big hit, but it probably drained some excitement from the main books. And the main books didn't help but being really, really dull in general. As with the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite having that very thing as an example, editorial tried to have its cake and eat it to. Rather than biting the bullet, renumbering every book with a new number one and giving the whole thing an across the board shake-up/ground-up relaunch, some books were radically altered, most were given cursory pretend alterations and some just went on with business as usual. The result? Fast sales drops back to pre-OYL levels.
Marvel, on the other hand, seems poised to capitalize. The Spider-Man books had been sinking in sales prior to Civil War, but saw a big boost during Civil War. So how do you keep that audience? Knock off a major supporting character, bring back the popular black costume. Did it work? Anecdotally, the answer seems to be yes in my store. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sold twice what it usually does for us, Sensational Spider-Man sold about 50% more, and we haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's back up to healthy numbers as well.
Civil War had a limp ending, but it did offer up a new status quo, and Marvel is poised to jump on that, with a handful of new series and miniseries and new directions for many of its titles. Too soon to tell how it's going to shake out, but Iron Man, Director of SHIELD sold better than any Iron Man issues since the first few of the Ellis/Granov run (before it became so late nobody cared). Folks seem excited about the idea of the Initiative. Captain America #25 has huge buzz as being something big. New Avengers sold out fast and got reordered. Mighty Avengers has some buzz.
Now personally, what's selling is the last thing I want to read. I found New Avengers #27, which sees Doctor Strange, Power Man and other notable heroes fighting ninjas (that fight should take about one page... it's a waste of the characters), ridiculous and annoying. The idea of Iron Man as director of SHIELD isn't awful, but it doesn't hold any particular interest for me. And the notion of all the Marvel heroes forming some sort of nationwide army split into 50 states seems like a bizarre decision to completely uproot the foundation of the Marvel Universe as it has stood since the beginning.
But... as a retailer, I can't help but be happy that Marvel has found a way to reinvigorate interest in these characters. I mean, a Moon Knight series selling the way Charlie Huston's book has is amazing, even if I find the whole thing banal and pointlessly ultra-violent. The Avengers are a complete and utter betrayal of the concept of the team, and yet it's selling better than any version of the book that I've loved. Spider-Man: Reign seems like a viciously nihilistic misunderstanding of the appeal of the character and a weak Dark Knight Returns ripoff, but it's doing pretty solid numbers and selling out.
So what can we learn? One, it's clear that my general guidelines for Marvel and DC superheroes (let them be heroic, make them at least somewhat consistent with the past, don't be embarrassed about superhero conventions) may in fact be diametrically opposed to what the readership at large wants. And two, it is possible to be mostly bored and/or disgusted with what's going on in mainstream superhero comics and at the same time elated by it. Just tie your financial fortunes into the very books you don't very much like. ;)
Archaia Press Unveils 2007 Offerings
Archaia has an impressive line-up already, and it looks like they're doing some major expansion in 2007. There's a pretty stunning array of artists in a variety of styles, and some intriguing new concepts, which can be seen in their beautiful PDF catalog.
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